


Stop Making Sense

by Vidriana



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Everyone Thinks They're Together, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pining, Relationship Dirty Talk, feelings are hard, kind of, meddling family members, meddling teammates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-10 14:48:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10440153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vidriana/pseuds/Vidriana
Summary: “Well, here’s how I see it,” Kappy starts. “You have two options.” He holds up a finger. “One: You just tell them the truth.” He shrugs.“What’s option two?” Willy asks.Kappy raises a second finger. “Option two: You get a fake boyfriend,” he says, with much more gravitas than this ridiculous statement could possibly warrant.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [teshumai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teshumai/gifts).



> Dear teshumai,
> 
> since you didn't have a specific prompt for these two in mind, I went a bit wild with the things you list as Likes on your Dreamwidth. I saw that you like Fake-Dating, and roomates and best Friends falling in love and, well, these two dorks actually live together so that seemed like a good idea.
> 
> Warning: Non-famous family members appear as minor characters, so if that really bothers you, this fic probably isn't the right one for you.
> 
> Thousand thanks to my amazing beta who put up with my weird writing habits and spent hours upon hours editing this with me.
> 
> The title is taken from the the Talking Heads album by the same title.
> 
> Enjoy!

Willy’s still not sure how he even let it get to this point in the first place. 

It all starts with his older sister, Michelle, who had been teasing him about a girl that had hit on him at a bar the night before in a way that couldn’t be more obvious. Really, she’d probably only been kidding when she’d said, “What’s going on with you, Willy? You don’t have time for your fans anymore?” with a spark in her eyes.

Still, he had been tired of pretending. He’d done enough of that during the season, flirting with girls in bars and listening to his teammates whistle appreciatively at him. He just hadn’t felt like doing it around his family, not during his break. So his response had been an, “I’m already seeing someone” accompanied with a roll of his eyes. 

He hadn’t expected her eyes to widen and for her to grab his arm and say, “What? Why didn’t you tell me? You’re supposed to tell me stuff like this.” Willy had just shaken her off, mumbled something and disappeared to go train with his dad and Alex. In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have done that.

Dinner that night had been strangely intense. His mom had kept shooting him these looks while passing the peas and pursing her mouth at him and it had just been really weird. He’d finally found out why, when they’d been finished with eating and she had stopped him from getting up and collecting the dishes with a firm, “William” and, shit, full names never meant anything good. “Don’t you have something to tell us?” she’d continued and Willy had been confused for a second, before catching Michelle’s eye and remembering the afternoon.

“Oh,” he’d started, not sure what to say. “Uhm, I might be seeing someone?” he’d hedged, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. He had still been able to tell his mom was unhappy with him. She’d sighed, in that clear _I’m not mad, just dissapointed_ way.

“Well, why didn’t you tell us before now? You know, it’s difficult enough, having you live so far away from home and now I find out you don’t even share the important parts of your life with us?” She’d sounded genuinely hurt and Willy really hadn’t thought this would be such a big deal.

“I’m sorry, mom,” he’d said, still looking at the floor. 

She had sighed again and said, “I understand that you want your privacy, but I just thought you’d tell me about this kind of thing.” She had sounded so sad, that Willy hadn’t really known what to do. So he’d used the only explanation that had made sense to him in that moment.

“I just didn’t tell you because- I mean-” he’d broken off to take a deep breath. “It’s not a girl,” he’d finished quietly. There had been a moment of silence in which Willy’s mind had just enough time to run through every horror scenario about coming out to his family that he’d ever considered. 

Then his mom had said, “Oh, honey” in a kind of choked off way and hugged him so hard he’d been seriously worried he might get bruises. He had also felt smaller arms wrap around him at waist level, which mean that at least two of his little sisters had joined the embrace. When he’d looked up he could see his dad and Alex also smiling at him lightly. 

His mom had detached herself from him and there had been a slightly teary speech about how much they all loved him and that they were sorry he hadn’t felt like he could tell them before. All in all, it had gone really well and Willy had been so relieved. He hadn’t really expected that to ever come back to bite him in the ass.

And at first it hadn’t been problem, because Willy lives in Toronto, where his fictional boyfriend also resides, and his family lives in Sweden. It’s not like they see each other that often and he’d made it pretty clear that his boyfriend was quite closeted and shy, so he could dodge most personal questions about him. 

Except then Christmas is coming up and Alex is playing in the World Juniors right here, in Toronto, around that time, so it obviously makes sense for their family to fly over and celebrate Christmas here. Willy is stoked to be honest, because he loves his family and he loves having them here. Especially since his full schedule has been making it more and more difficult to even talk to them regularly.

Really, it couldn’t be better news. At least until his mom smiles gently at him, through the pixelated video of the Skype window, and says, “Since we’re all going to be in the same place for once, why don’t you bring your boyfriend? We’d all love to meet him.”

Willy is about to protest, that his boyfriend is obviously spending Christmas with his own family, when he mom hastily reassures him, “Oh, it doesn’t have to be actual Christmas of course! I mean, we’re here for a while, so we could maybe do the 26th? Or the 27th? You don’t have a game there, do you?”

Willy’s face must do something weird, because his mother’s smile wavers before fading into a worried expression.”Is everything okay, honey?” she asks, “You didn’t break up, did you?”

And it would be such a good way out of the situation, to claim a painful break-up and never talk about his made-up boyfriend again. But his mother had been saying just last week how glad she was that Willy had someone in Toronto, when his family was so far away, and she looks seriously worried now. Willy can’t do it. 

Instead he finds himself saying, “Oh no, we’re fine! Everything’s great! Really!” He might have overdone the enthusiasm a bit, because now his mom looks sceptical. “It’s just that he’s really shy, you know?” he adds as an explanation.

His mother’s face turns gentle again and in moments like this he misses her so much. “Of course, honey, I understand,” she says, “But you’ll ask him anyway? I mean, we’d love to have you here, but it’s your first Christmas as a couple, so we’ll understand if you’d rather spend it with your boyfriend. I know you said he doesn’t have any family living close by either.” 

And shit, now Willy can’t even go to his family’s Christmas dinner without seeming like a huge asshole who leaves his boyfriend alone on Christmas eve. He smiles waveringly at his mom again, “Of course, I’ll ask him. I’ll let you know what he says, yeah?”

They say their goodbyes and end the call, and Willy sits in front of his laptop with his head in his hands.

He’s fucked, basically. 

————— 

The main problem is that Willy needs a boyfriend now. Well, actually he would have needed a boyfriend six months ago, when the topic first came up, but having a boyfriend now would already seriously improve the situation. 

He briefly considers making up an excuse about his boyfriend having to miss the Christmas dinner due to illness, or a family emergency, but his mom would probably just be disappointed that Willy left his boyfriend all alone in such a state, so…that’s not an option.

Another option would be actually going out and finding someone he can bring home to meet his family on Christmas, but, well, Willy’s scared. The reason he hadn’t told his family about his sexuality before was mostly that there had never been anyone to tell them about. Even if he wasn’t a hockey player in the center of the hockey universe in danger of getting outed, he wouldn’t really know what to do with a boyfriend if he had one. Not the sex part, he’s pretty confident he can figure that out, but actually being in a relationship seems terrifying.

While Willy is still internally debating his dilemma, he hears a key in the lock of the front door. Moments later he hears someone shuffling off shoes on the door mat and shortly afterwards Kappy walks into the living room.

“Hey,” he greets Willy softly, and sits down on a couch opposite Willy. “Is everything okay? You look kind of freaked out.” 

“Yeah, fine,” Willy lies. “How was dinner?”

Kappy shrugs. “Same as always. The guys say hi. Now, tell me what’s wrong?” He says it like a question and Willy feels the knot in his stomach loosen a bit. Things might be difficult with his family right now, but Kappy’s always here for him. They’ve got each other’s backs. 

“I was just talking to my family,” Willy starts, but isn’t really sure how to continue. Kappy’s brows crease in worry.

“Are they alright?” he asks and Willy nods quickly.

“Yeah, it’s just… I kinda lied to them and now I don’t know what to do?” Willy explains and Kappy gives him a questioning look.

“I’m glad they’re okay,” he says, and pauses, raising his eyebrows at Willy, obviously waiting for him to continue. Willy can’t help but smile at that, but he isn’t sure how much he should say.

Kappy nudges his thigh with a socked foot. “Come on,” he pushes. “Tell me your family drama. I wanna help.”

“Like you’d be any help anyway,” Willy says, grinning, and Kappy throws a couch pillow at him. 

“Please, I give great advice,” he declares and waits for Willy to contradict him. Usually Willy would, but this time he could actually use some advice. And it might be time he tells Kappy anyway.

Willy grabs the pillow that had narrowly missed his head with both hands and pulls it into his lap to have something to hide behind. Not that a pillow is going to help much if Kappy reacts badly, but it still feels good to have something to hold on to.

“Actually,” he starts, “maybe you could help me.” He’s not looking at Kappy, staring at the pillow in his lap instead, but he can hear the fabric of the couch rustling as Kappy sits up straighter.

“Yeah, of course, whatever you need,” Kappy says and Willy’s stomach tightens. This may be more terrifying than telling his family. At least he doesn’t live with them anymore. And Kappy is his best friend.

“So over the summer I might have accidentally told my family I’m seeing someone?” It comes out as a question, because saying it out loud makes it sound incredibly stupid.

Kappy raises an eyebrow at him again. “You’re not though, you would have told me.” 

Willy kind of hates that Kappy doesn’t sound completely sure.

“I’m not,” he confirms, “but my family thinks I am. And they want me to bring them to our Christmas dinner.” He pauses, not sure he wants to say more. “That’s the problem,” he finishes lamely and Kappy laughs, a bit sudden, but sounding relieved, probably that Willy isn’t keeping secrets from him. Well, that Willy isn’t keeping a secret girlfriend from him anyway.

“Dude, that’s not a real problem. Not for you, anyway. You’re a Leaf in Toronto, man, you can ask pretty much any girl to come to the dinner with you and she’ll say yes. She’ll probably be fine with pretending you’ve been dating since the summer as well, if you ask nicely.” Kappy’s smirking at him, but it looks a bit strained.

Willy’s still staring at at the pillow in his lap. He could just laugh it off now, agree with Kappy and try to figure out a solution for his problem alone. But Kappy isn’t making any teasing comments about the stupid situation Willy’s gotten himself into, so he could just tell Kappy the whole story. His fingers tighten on the pillow.

“I told them it’s not a girl,” he says, quietly. He hears Kappy suck in a quick breath, but it takes a couple of seconds before Kappy says anything.

“Why? I mean, was it just to finally get them off your back about being single?” he asks softly, and it’s a perfect way out, an option to laugh the whole thing off and make sure things between them stay the same.

Willy doesn’t take it.

“No, I just figured it’d be a good way to come out to them,” he looks up. “I’ve kinda been wanting to do that for a while, but I wasn’t really sure how.” Willy isn’t just talking about his family.

“Oh,” Kappy says softly and a strange expression flits over his face for a moment, but it’s gone so fast that Willy isn’t sure it was even there in the first place. “I, uhm,” Kappy clears his throat. “Thanks for telling me.”

Willy’s heart is beating uncomfortably fast. “We’re not gonna be weird now, are we?” he asks, trying to make it a joke, but it comes out way too serious instead. Kappy’s head snaps up like someone had slapped him.

“No! No, I- of course not!” he reassures Willy hastily. “You’re my best friend, I don’t care who you’re into! Promise,” he adds, looking slightly ruffled, but earnest and when Willy smiles at him, he returns the gesture without any hesitation. “I just really didn’t expect you… I mean, I guess I just thought you had a different problem,” he finishes lamely.

“Yeah? Like what?” Willy asks, just to lighten the mood a bit. The relief he feels is overwhelming in ways he doesn’t want to think about right now.

Kappy shrugs. “I don’t know, I figured it was something more… you know, hockey stuff.”

Willy immediately feels guilty and he must look like it, because Kappy rolls his eyes. “We’ve been over this.”

“I know, I just…” It feels wrong to complain about his issues on the Leafs when Kappy isn’t even on the team. Willy doesn’t quite believe Kappy when he says it doesn’t bother him.

Before things can get awkward between them, Kappy sits up straighter on his couch and there’s a glint in his eyes when he fixes Willy with a look. “So,” he starts, “back to your boyfriend problem, though.”

Willy groans and sinks into the cushions. Kappy smirks at him.

“How about you tell me the whole thing. From the beginning.”

———— 

Kappy is still laughing at him, even though Willy finished his story over a minute ago now. He doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon either, because he’s now lying down and holding his stomach, so Willy goes to the kitchen to get himself some water.

When he returns to the living room, with his newly acquired beverage, Kappy has apparently finally calmed down. He’s still smirking, but at least his whole body isn’t shaking with laughter anymore. He catches sight of the glass in Willy’s hand and pouts instead.

“You didn’t bring me one?” he asks, sounding deeply offended. Willy just sits down and raises his eyebrows at him.

“Why would I do that? You said you’d help and you haven’t been any help so far” Willy says flatly. He takes a sip and sets his glass down on their little coffee table. “If you actually help, I’ll get you some water.”

Kappy seems satisfied with that, because he sits up and looks at Willy intently. “Well, here’s how I see it,” he starts. “You have two options.” He holds up a finger. “One: You just tell them the truth.” He shrugs. “They’ll probably laugh about it and it’ll be fine.” 

Willy isn’t so sure. He’s pretty sure he’s in too deep now to just come clean. He’s been perpetuating this lie for months, after all. Before he can voice any of these concerns, Kappy continues. “That’s also the really boring option, so I vote against that,” he says with a grin. Willy rolls his eyes at him.

“Alright, what’s option two?” he asks. 

Kappy raises a second finger. “Option two: You get a fake boyfriend,” he says, with much more gravitas than this ridiculous statement could possibly warrant.

Willy bursts out laughing. Kappy looks insulted.

“Alright,” Willy says, just to humor him. “Where do you suggest I get a fake boyfriend?”

Kappy looks thoughtful. “Well, I guess we can’t just pick a random dude and ask him,” he starts and Willy feels a cold shiver run down his spine just at the suggestion. Kappy seems to notice because he reassures him right away, “We’re obviously not gonna do that.”

He seems to have some sort of internal debate then, because he opens and closes his mouth a couple of times, like he wants to say something but keeps deciding against it at the last second.

“Just spit it out,” Willy demands and Kappy shoots him an apologetic look.

“I was just wondering— I mean, who, ehm, who actually knows you’re…gay? bi?” he says carefully, "you never said exactly, you just said you’re into guys, and I didn't want to assume..."

Oh, well, he might have misinterpreted that. “I mean, it’s, ehm, just guys for me.”

Kappy seems to accept that with another shrug and Willy remembers that he still hasn’t actually answered the question.

“You’re the only person I told. Besides my family, I mean. But— Pasta knows as well.” Willy says, not quite meeting Kappy’s eyes. He feels his cheeks turn red. 

“Pasta is...Pastrnak?” Kappy asks and Willy nods in confirmation. “So,” Kappy starts slowly, clearly waiting for Willy to finish the sentence. 

Willy’s whole head feels hot. “I might have— I mean, we got drunk one time after the season was over and, uhm, it just— we were about to get drafted, so at the time it seemed like a good idea to, you know.” He looks to Kappy for help, so he doesn’t actually have to spell it out, but Kappy isn’t giving him anything. “I kissed him.”

Willy isn’t looking at Kappy, but he can hear him shift on the couch. “So what did he— I mean, how did he react,” Kappy asks carefully, the way he always talks when he’s trying not to hurt someone’s feelings. Willy looks up again.

“Oh, it was fine,” he reassures Kappy. “He mostly thought it was hilarious at the time. The next morning he told me that he’s not interested, but that he hopes I find a nice boy. So, you know, he’s straight. Or maybe, I’m just not his type,” Willy finishes.

“So Pastrnak’s straight,” Kappy repeats. “But a good friend, apparently.” He looks at Willy thoughtfully. “Do you think he’d be cool with pretending to be your boyfriend?”

WIlly snorts. “I’ve known him since I was 16, it’s a bit unrealistic that we only got together a couple months ago. Besides,” he adds, “he knows my family really well, even played with my dad, so we probably wouldn’t have kept it from them until now.”

Kappy hums in agreement, apparently already moving on in his list of potential fake-boyfriend candidates. “So, then the question is,” he finally says, slowly, and fixes Willy with an intense look, “who else would you be willing to tell?”

Willy thinks about that for a moment. He’d thought about it before, obviously. He’d actually come up with a lot of scenarios in which he comes out to people, good ones, as well as bad ones, but there’d just never been a good opportunity to actually do it. 

“Most of the guys, actually,” he muses, finally. “At least the ones I’ve known for a while. You know, the guys I already played with last year, the guys from the Marlies. Maybe Matty as well, I don’t think he’d care. Probably some others as well… Oh and Mo, of course,” he adds, smiling slightly to himself. “He’d probably give a whole speech about how I can come to him for help if anyone ever gives me shit. He’s kinda on a team dad trip right now,” he adds for Kappy’s benefit, since he hasn’t actually met Mo in rookie herding mode.

Kappy’s smiling him softly now. It’s a small expression, his lips barely moved, but it somehow light up his whole face anyway. “I’m glad you— I mean, you have good people around you.”

Willy feels a soft, warm feeling in the pit of his stomach at the thought. He really is happy about his boys. Kappy rips him out of his thought though.

“So, which one do you think would make a good fake boyfriend?” he asks. Willy...has no idea. He generally tries not to think of his teammates in that way. Kappy apparently has no such concerns, because he continues with, “Or, I mean, who’s most your type?”

Willy can feel his face go hot again. There is absolutely no way he’s answering that question. Kappy would never let him live it down if he actually started listing his unfortunate crushes of seasons past. Kappy seems to realize he has to take some more initiative.

“How about Matthews?” Kappy suggests. “He seems like a good dude and your dad will love him, because of the hockey stuff.”

Willy should chirp him about the _hockey stuff_ comment, because they all do _hockey stuff,_ but decides against it. Instead he considers the suggestion for a moment, before discarding it. “Nah,” he says. “I’ve only known Auston since camp, so the timeline wouldn’t work.”

Kappy isn’t deterred by his first suggestion being shot down, because he has the next one ready right away. “Alright, how about Josh then? You’ve known him a while and he seems like he’d be good with parents.”

Willy gives that some thought as well, before shaking his head. “No, he can’t lie for shit. It’d be a disaster.” At Kappy’s questioning look he just shrugs helplessly. “Dunno, it’s just something— he’s got really honest eyes, you know?” 

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Kappy raises an eyebrow at him. “Really?” he asks, sounding like he’d just found chirping material for the next decade. “Pretty eyes? That does it for you?” he adds with a grin and Willy can feel his face go hot again. “I should have known you’d be into that.”

“Oh, shut up,” Willy groans, but there’s a tiny part of him that’s pleased Kappy is okay with joking about this. “Not Josh. Who’s next on your list?” he says hastily, to change the subject.

Kappy gives him a look that says he knows what Willy is doing, but he lets him get away with it. “Hmm, how about Zach? Your dad already knows him from last year and he’s a great guy. Also,” he adds with a smirk. “He’s got very pretty eyes.” To make things even worse he honest to god _wiggles_ his eyebrows. Willy throws a pillow at him. He needs a new best friend, clearly. 

He takes a bit longer to consider Zach. He probably would be a good choice. They’ve been friends for a while now and they always spend a lot of time together. Zach is also on top of Willy’s ‘probably safe to come out to’ list, and he’d probably find the whole thing hilarious and play along. Still, Willy has to shake his head again.

“He’s been talking about how excited he is that all his siblings are together for Hanukkah this year, I don’t really want to ask him to leave them for an evening, just so I can keep lying to my family.”

Kappy seems a bit dejected at that, but nods understandingly. He takes a bit longer this time to come up with the next candidate, but eventually he asks, “Sosh? He’s a good friend as well and if things get awkward you can always blame the language barrier.”

Willy shakes his head almost right away. “He’s Russian,” he says and before Kappy can comment on that he quickly adds, “it’s not that I don’t think he’d be okay with me, I just don’t want him involved. If someone accidentally said something...I can’t ask him to risk that.” 

Kappy now looks genuinely sad and not just because his latest suggestion got rejected. He’s also quiet for longer this time, and starting to looking worried. Before he can come up with a new candidate, Willy preempts it. “Please don’t suggest Mo. He’s trying to adopt me and it’d be really weird to pretend I’m dating him,” he says, which startles a laugh out of Kappy. 

“Alright, I guess he’s out as well,” he says, but he’s smiling again, so Willy accomplished his goal. “We’re kinda running out of options though. I mean, unless…” He trails off and suddenly avoids Willy’s gaze. 

After the conversation they’ve been having, Willy isn’t really sure what there is to be embarrassed about now, but he doesn’t press and instead waits for Kappy to speak by himself. 

“What if I did it?” Kappy finally says, quick, like he’s nervous. Willy’s not sure what to say. 

What he does say is, “Do you want to?” and it comes out sounding just slightly incredulous. It’s just, well, Kappy had so cheerfully taken over the challenge of finding Willy a fake boyfriend, Willy hadn’t really expected him to include himself as a potential candidate. 

Apparently he does though and, objectively speaking, Kappy is probably the perfect choice. They’ve known each other for over a year now, which is plenty of time to become friends and then slowly discover there might be deeper feelings involved. Kappy also already knows that Willy’s gay, so there’s no risk involved in telling him. Furthermore, Willy’s parents have both met Kappy, but not often enough to already have an established opinion of him, or to get a read on their relationship.

As Willy’s warming up to the idea more and more, he doesn’t even realize he hasn’t said anything on the subject yet. 

“I mean, obviously that’s just an idea!” Kappy hastily deflects. “I’m sure we can find someone else! Maybe Brownie! You’ve known him for a while. Or Sparky! You’ve always liked goalies. Or— “

“Kappy, shut up, you’re rambling,” Willy says with a laugh and grins at him. “It’s a great idea. It’s perfect, actually. I just didn’t know you were up for it.”

Kappy loses his slightly panicked expression and starts to look surprised instead. “Oh. Really?” 

“Sure, you’re the perfect candidate. And,” Willy winks at him. “You also have pretty eyes.”

For a second, Willy thinks he might have overstepped with that last comment and made things awkward, but then it passes, and Kappy grins back at him.

“Damn right, I do!”

———— 

“So,” Kappy says, after Willy gets some snacks and a glass of water for Kappy from the kitchen. “We need a story.”

“Hm?” Willy asks, biting into a kale chip. Gards had recommended them. He isn’t quite sold yet, but he's hungry.

“You know, a story for your parents. About how we got together and stuff,” Kappy explains. 

Willy just shrugs. “I dunno, I just figured we’d improvise, mostly. I mean, all we need to decide is when we got together and the rest should be fine.” He grabs another handful of chips and sinks back into his couch pillows. He’s kinda getting used to the taste now.

Kappy shoots him a judgemental look. “We’re gonna need a bit more than that, if we want to actually be convincing.”

“Nah, my parents aren’t that complicated, they’re not gonna grill you or anything,” Willy says, still munching away happily. 

Now Kappy just looks incredulous. “You’ve never introduced them to a partner before, have you?” he asks, still very judgemental. 

Willy just shrugs. “No, but it can’t be that different. And they already know you. It’ll be fine.”

Kappy groans. “It’s worse, if they already know me. They’ll wanna know when we got together and then they’ll try to figure out if they could have known. Trust me, it’s gonna be bad and we need to be prepared.” 

“Alright,” Willy says, sitting up a bit straighter. “What’s your plan?”

Kappy looks thoughtful for a moment. “Did you already tell them when we got together?”

Willy shakes his head. “No. I told them something about spring, but not an exact date, so we can tell them whatever.”

Kappy nods. “Good, that makes things easier. I have an idea.”

Willy grabs another handful of chips and stuffs them into his mouth. 

Kappy says, “So, if we officially got together somewhere in, hmm...March? That’s good. Then we could’ve spent all of January and February hooking up and experimenting and stuff.”

Willy chokes on his chips. He coughs violently and Kappy shoots him a concerned look. “Dude, are you alright?” Kappy asks, and starts getting up like he wants to walk over and help, but Willy holds up a hand to stop him.

He finishes coughing and wipes some tears from his eyes. “We are _not_ telling my parents when we started hooking up,” he says, voice more hoarse than usual from his recent brush with suffocation. 

Kappy rolls his eyes. “Obviously not. But it’s good to have background information to keep our story straight. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you only reveal about half of what you actually know, so that you can use the other half to answer unexpected questions?”

Willy snorts. “I’m pretty sure that’s for school presentations, not elaborate lies.” Kappy waves his hand as if to discard Willy’s criticism.

“Whatever, it’s still good advice,” he says with a grin. Willy clears his throat to get rid of the scratching sensation.

“I don’t really see why that’s necessary though, I mean—” Willy starts, but Kappy cuts him off. 

“Oh, come on, like we spent months being friends and then suddenly discovered our warm fuzzy feelings for each other,” he raises his eyebrows, “that’s just not realistic. It makes much more sense if we hooked up for some reason. Maybe we got drunk together? That’s what happened with Pastrnak, right?” 

Before Willy can protest that he really only kissed Pasta and hadn’t actually planned anything more, Kappy’s already continuing. 

“Oh, I know! The first time happened after World Juniors. You’ve been into me for a while at that point and took the opportunity to ‘congratulate’” — he actually does finger quotes at this. Willy’s best friend is a moron — “me on my goal by giving me a blowjob and that’s how it all started.” He looks incredibly satisfied with himself. Willy doesn’t even know how to respond. 

What he finally comes up with is, “I had a concussion after World Juniors. I don’t think you should give blowjobs when you’re concussed. Although," he adds with a grin, “it makes sense that I only came on to you ‘cause I was brain-damaged.”

Kappy grimaces, not really getting into Willy’s attempt at humor. “Yeah, okay that doesn’t work. Maybe when you were better though?”

Willy shakes his head. “I don’t know, I don’t really like it. It just seems…” he trails off, not sure how to finish the sentence. 

Kappy, apparently gets where he’s going with this, because he says, “What? Oh come on, you don’t go from friends to suddenly dating without something big happening. Like some unfortunate drunken hook-up, or just, I dunno, blowing off steam after a win.”

Kappy’s probably right about that, but it still sounds so…emotionless to Willy. He’d just always thought there’d be more… _warmth_ involved when he did eventually actually date someone. Honestly, even this fake scenario leaves him feeling a bit unsettled.

Some of his wariness must show on his face, because Kappy’s voice takes on a sarcastic tone. “I mean, how else could it happen? Have we been secretly pining after each other for years? Did I finally get the nerve to confess my undying love? Is that romantic enough for you?”

There’s a cold feeling in Willy’s stomach and it’s slowly spreading, so he wraps his arms around his middle. It’s suddenly really difficult to look at Kappy, so he stares at the bowl of kale chips instead as if they’re to blame. 

He isn’t really paying attention to Kappy anymore, so he startles when something touches his shoulder. He looks up to see Kappy sitting next to him now, wearing an apologetic look. Or maybe it’s just pity, Willy can’t really tell.

“I’m sorry,” Kappy says. “That came out wrong. I didn’t mean—” He breaks off and grimaces. “I’m just trying to make it realistic, but that doesn’t— Look, if you want those things in real life there’s nothing wrong with that,” he finally finishes, gently laying a hand on Willy’s back.

Willy feels his cheeks heat again, but somehow he feels even more embarrassed by Kappy seeing it this time. “I’m not—” he starts, “I mean, it’s not like I want...that. It’s just, I figured we could come up with something a bit…happier?” He’s still not looking at Kappy.

Kappy is silent for a moment, then he says, “Yeah, of course, we can do that,” very softly. 

Willy knows it’s probably his turn to make a suggestion now, but he feels strangely vulnerable in a way he usually doesn’t around Kappy, and he can’t actually bring himself to speak.

“How about,” Kappy finally breaks the silence, “we were both really nervous about being called up last season. And we were just so glad to be in this together.” He’s still talking a lot softer than usual. “And when you scored your first goal...I was just so happy for you, I— maybe I realized I don’t just see you as a friend?” He shoots Willy a slightly uncertain look, as if to check whether he approves of this story, but it has none of that mocking edge from before, so Willy smiles shyly at him.

“What is it with you and goals?” he asks, just to make Kappy smile as well. Kappy blushes slightly, which is even better.

“Hey, don’t act like good hockey doesn’t do it for you, too!” he says with a slight laugh and Willy grins at him, glad that they’re on the same page again.

“So, what happened then?” Willy asks, curious. “Did you tell me right away? Or did you wait for a bit?”

“Nah, I had to be sure it’s real first. I mean, you don’t just risk a whole friendship for a little crush, right?” he says and Willy nods, agreeable.

“That seems realistic. So when were you sure? And how did I find out? Did you tell me?”

Kappy looks thoughtful for a second. “No,” he decides,” I don’t think I told you. I think I waited for a bit, maybe until we were both back with the Marlies?” He nods to himself. “Yeah, familiar territory sounds good. So we were back with the guys and, I don’t know, we were just hanging out after practice like we usually do. Except it was only the two of us that time, because the others had already left and you always like to practice your shot after we’re done.” Kappy pauses and takes a sip of his water.

Willy’s throat is also a bit dry, but he doesn’t move. He’s suddenly very aware of Kappy’s hand where it’s still resting on his back, a comforting spot of warmth. Willy clears his throat. “So we were alone together after practice. What happened then?”

Kappy carefully sets his glass back down on the table. “I think I just looked at you, all red and sweaty and with your hair a mess...and then I kissed you,” he says quietly.

The words hang in the air for a moment. Willy fidgets a bit on the couch and his leg brushes Kappy’s. “So what did I do?” Willy asks, looking up at Kappy.

Kappy is looking at him as well, his cheeks slightly red. The conversation had changed direction from where he’d begun it, which must be weird for him. Kappy swallows. “I don’t know, what did you do? How would you react?”

Willy thinks about it for a moment, trying to imagine it. “I was happy. I kissed you back,” he says with some conviction. It really easy to picture, actually. Not with Kappy, necessarily, but someone he’s so close to caring about him that way sounds really...nice. There’s a tight feeling in his chest, but he tries to push it down. 

Instead of getting even more sappy about a hypothetical scenario, he tries to deflect instead.

“And what happened then, huh? Did we get some dinner together? Or,” he starts, picking up on Kappy’s earlier suggestions, “did you drag me off to fuck in the showers?” He smirks at Kappy, but it doesn’t feel natural, so he’s not sure what it looks like. Kappy looks confused. He moves his hand away from Willy’s back. It’s not a big movement, he just rests it on the couch instead, but Willy feels the absence right away.

“I thought you wanted to take it slow,” he says, brows furrowed. “I mean, you didn’t like my first idea, so I figured…” 

Willy just rolls his eyes. “It’s not about taking it slow, it’s just— Oh, nevermind. Doesn’t matter anyway.”

Kappy looks like he want to say something, but apparently decides against it. He takes another sip of his water. “So...that’s how we started dating then,” Kappy sums up lamely, and Willy nods. “I liked my first idea better, but I guess this works, too.”

Willy raises an eyebrow. “You just wanna pretend you’re irresistible,” he says, and punches Kappy lightly in the arm.

Kappy puffs up his chest. “That’s ‘cause I am,” he declares, smugly.

Willy snorts. “Yeah, no. I’m resisting you just fine, don’t worry.” Kappy pouts at him.

“I come up with such a beautiful fake love story for us and this is how you treat me? I’m hurt,” he declares and Willy can’t help but grin at his antics. There’s none of the previous awkwardness now, it’s just them. 

“Anything else?” he asks Kappy. “You’re the fake love story expert after all.”

Kappy looks slightly mollified by his new title. “I think we’re good for tonight. We got the most important part at least, we can do the rest some other time.”

Willy nods and gets up. He starts clearing the table, gathering their glasses and the bowl of leftover kale chips. “What else do you think we need to cover?” he asks Kappy

Kappy shuffles around the couch before responding, apparently content to watch Willy clean up, like the lazy bastard he is. “Hm, he says. “I don’t know. It’s mostly background stuff, just so we’re on the same page about everything.”

Willy nods. “That seems reasonable.” He looks down at the chips in his hand, trying to decide if he still wants to eat them.

Kappy shoots him a grin and says, “Like, tomorrow we can discuss the first time we had sex.”

Willy throws the kale chips at him.

————— 

Willy’s almost forgotten about the awkward end to the evening when he wakes up the next morning. He makes himself a batch of eggs for breakfast and sits down at their kitchen table to eat.

Kappy doesn’t have a game today — he often doesn’t on weekdays — so he gets to sleep in, but Willy has morning skate to get ready for the Sharks. Willy prepares protein shakes for both of them anyway and puts Kappy’s in the fridge before he leaves.

When he steps on the ice, he feels like he’s finally fully awake. He takes a couple of laps, feeling the ice underneath his blades. He greets his teammates as he’s skating past, but mostly he just enjoys the feeling of freedom that he gets nowhere else. 

He thinks back to the previous evening and smiles to himself. That certainly hadn’t been the outcome he’d expected when he’d first decided to tell Kappy about his boyfriend problem. He still can’t quite believe it, even now, it just seems so absurd. A couple of times he catches himself wanting to tell Sosh about it, or maybe Zach, but it only lasts a second, before he remembers all the reasons he can’t.

When he gets off the ice and takes off his gear, he sees a new message from Kappy on his phone. He opens it and it’s a selfie. Kappy’s still lying in bed without a shirt, but now holding up his protein shake, so he must have moved to get it. The caption reads _Best (fake) boyfriend ever!_ and Willy can’t help but laugh slightly. 

Someone taps him on the shoulder and he lowers his phone and turns around. It’s Zach. 

“Hey, I was just wondering if you wanna get lunch together,” he says, friendly as always, and Willy nods.

“Yeah, sounds good. Who else is coming?” he asks and Zach shrugs.

“I figured we could ask Sosh again, you know. Do you have the address of that place you wanna go to?”

“Yeah hold on,” Willy responds and unlocks his phone, closing out of his messages before opening his browser to the restaurant he and Zach had talked about before. “You wanna drive there together or should I text you the address and meet you there?”

“Huh?” Zach looks like Willy just startled him out of some deep thought. “Oh no, it’s fine, I’ll, uh, I’ll drive with Sosh, I think. Meet you there!” Zach says hastily and then he’s gone. Willy stares after him. That was weird. He shrugs and gathers his stuff. It’s a game day, so he has more important things to worry about and, besides, he’s hungry.

————— 

Despite Zach’s quick departure in the locker room, lunch isn’t awkward. They talk about the upcoming game, mostly, until Zach also brings up their plans during the upcoming break. 

“I mean, it’s nice to get a couple of days off, sure, but I’m mostly excited to see everyone. Can you go see your families?”

Sosh shakes his head. “Too far, not enough time” he says, sounding a bit dejected, but not really sad. He shrugs. “It’s not real Christmas anyway.”

Willy hadn’t really thought of that. “My family’s coming over actually,” he says. 

Zach looks surprised. “All of them?” Willy nods. 

“Yeah, Alex is in Toronto for World Juniors anyway, so we just decided to have the whole family here this year,” Willy says with a smile. He hesitates for a moment, then continues, “I’m even bringing Kappy, since he’s all alone.” It’s not that weird, they live together after all.

Sosh certainly doesn’t seem to think it’s weird, because he nods, like he expected this, but Zach looks startled. “Oh,” he says. “I mean, that, uh, that’s really nice that you’re inviting him. I mean, he’s your best friend, that makes sense.” He seems to notice that he’s rambling and shuts his mouth.

Willy shoots him a sceptical glance, but Zach busies himself with his food again and doesn’t look at him. Before Willy can say anything, Sosh sighs, deep and long-suffering “I’m also your friend and you don’t invite me.” He looks heartbroken. “I’m not special like Kapanen?”

Zach coughs and quickly takes a gulp of his water. Willy isn’t sure what to say, “Uhm, I mean…” Then he catches the mischievous glint in Sosh’s eyes and punches him in the side with an exasperated noise. Sosh starts laughing and Willy can’t help but join in.

“You’re the worst friend ever, no wonder you’re not invited for Christmas,” he says, pretending to be offended.

“Not real Christmas anyway,” Sosh just declares and goes back to his pasta dish.

————— 

When Willy gets home for his pre-game nap, Kappy is nowhere to be found. This isn’t a surprise. Even if he doesn’t have a game, there’s still afternoon practice and a tactical discussion for tomorrow’s game.

What is a surprise is the little note that’s taped to the kitchen counter. _Good luck in the game tonight <3 Score a goal for me!_ it reads in Kappy’s scrawly handwriting. Willy can’t help but smile at that. He’s probably not going to see Kappy before he has to leave for the game, so this is nice.

He pulls out his phone and shoots Kappy a quick _Since when do you write me good luck notes?_ message. He knows Kappy won’t be able to respond for a while so he settles down for his nap.

When his ringing alarm wakes him, he lies on his back for a moment longer to stare at the ceiling. Sharks today. A team full of big guys that play a physical game. Exactly the kind of team people say he can’t play against. He clenches his fist and breathes deeply, before sitting up with a jolt and swinging himself up off the bed.

When he takes a look at his phone, he sees a new message from Kappy. _What kind of (fake) boyfriend would I be, if I didn’t wish you luck_. It makes Willy smile again. He’d thought the whole fake boyfriend thing might make things awkward between them, but this new dimension is surprisingly fun.

He doesn’t score a goal for Kappy, but he does get two assists, and that’s not so bad either.

————— 

They keep up the constant little references to their ‘relationship’ over the next couple of weeks, as well as working on their backstory to get more familiar with it. 

Still, when the actual day of the family dinner rolls around, Willy is nervous. He’d debated telling his family about Kappy in advance, but in the end all he’d done was confirm that he and his boyfriend would both join his family for dinner on the 25th. 

They already exchanged gifts the evening before, so it’s not really a Christmas thing, which takes some pressure off. On the other hand, that means the only official reason for the dinner is introducing his boyfriend to his family.

He checks his hair in the mirror for the fourth time. He doesn’t even know what he’s worried about, his parents already know Kappy and like him, his little sisters adore him. He doesn’t really know why any of that would change if he introduced Kappy as his boyfriend, but...

He’s still staring at himself when Kappy walks up behind him. Kappy looks good. He’s wearing a soft looking, light gray sweater with slightly darker jeans and his hair is artfully tousled in the way he usually does it for important events. He takes a look at Willy and creases his brow. 

“What do you look so nervous for? You’re not the one meeting the parents,” he says with a frown. Willy shrugs.

“I know, but what, I mean, what if they notice something? That it’s not real, I mean,” he adds and shoots Kappy a worried glance. Kappy shakes his head.

“Why would they notice? I mean, if you meet a couple, do you ever wonder if they’re maybe just faking it? It’s not like there’s a code on how you have to act if you’re in a relationship. No matter what we do, they won’t notice,” Kappy responds. He puts his arm around Willy’s shoulder. “Besides,” he adds, “we look really good together.”

They do. Kappy is slightly taller than him and Willy’s leaning into him slightly. Willy’s dropped his shoulder slightly, so that he can fit comfortably under Kappy’s arm. They look like a couple. Willy would definitely buy it if he didn’t know better.

The moment is broken when Willy looks at his phone. “Shit, we’re gonna be late!”

————— 

When they get to the house Willy’s parents are renting while they’re staying in Toronto, Willy’s just as nervous as he was the whole day. He can’t believe they’re really doing this.

He reaches out to ring the doorbell, but Kappy holds him back. “Hold on.” He grabs Willy’s hand and links their fingers together. “Okay, now.”

Willy smiles at him and presses the buzzer. They don’t have to wait long until quick, excited footsteps can be heard from inside. The door flies open and a small body barrels into Willy, closely followed by a second one. Willy catches them both easily and lets go of Kappy’s hand to hug his sisters hello. A voice from inside calls, “Girls? Let your brother and his guest in, it’s cold out!” And they both let go of Willy’s middle and step back to look at Kappy. 

“Oh,” one of them says, and then in Swedish, “But I thought—” Her sister elbows her in the side.

“Nice to see you again,” she says politely, and in English this time, to Kappy and then steps back into the house, pulling her sister along with her. 

Kappy gives Willy a questioning look. “That was okay, I think?” he says, making it sound like a question. Willy nods, equally confused.

“I think so.” He takes a deep breath and takes Kappy’s hand again. “Okay, this is gonna be fine,” he says, mostly to himself. Kappy squeezes his hand and they step into the house.

Willy’s mother spots them first when she’s stepping out of the kitchen with a ginormous salad bowl in her hands. Willy thinks there’s might be mix of different salad greens in there, along with some beets and carrots, but he can’t be sure. Confusion flits across her features. “What—” she starts, but then her gaze drifts to their interlocked hands and it quickly turns to surprise, before a warm smile spreads across her face. “Well...this is a nice surprise. But I should have guessed, I mean.” She gestures at them. “It makes sense.”

Willy doesn’t think it makes sense, but if their ruse works so flawlessly he’s not going to question it. He’s also not really sure what to say though. He’d been thinking about detailed, long-winded explanations about how they’re friendship turned into more just for his mom and now she isn’t even surprised. Willy feels very confused. 

“Well, it’s nice to see you again, Kasperi,” Willy’s mom says with a friendly smile and Kappy smiles back.

“Yes, thank you for inviting me, Mrs Nylander,” Kappy agrees and then asks, “Do you need any help with that?” while pointing at the bowl she’s is still holding. 

“Oh no, thank you, dear,” she responds. “And please, call me Camilla. You boys should go ahead to the dining room, I think we’re all set there now.” As she walks past them, she gives Willy a significant look, like she approves of all his life choices that have lead to this moment, before she turn her back on them.

Willy shoots Kappy a look. “Wow.” 

Kappy just shrugs. “What can I say, I’m good with parents,” he says with a grin.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Willy responds with a raised eyebrow.

“Come on, we should go in before they start wondering what we’re still doing out here,” Kappy suggests and Willy takes a deep breath. Kappy squeezes his hand. “It’s gonna be fine,” he says and then they enter the dining room.

All four of Willy’s sisters are already sitting at the table. They’re talking to each other in low, hushed voices, but they stop and look up when Willy and Kappy enter the room. Apparently their welcoming committee has already started spreading the news that Kappy is the secret boyfriend, because Willy’s other sisters look curious, but not surprised to see him.

Willy’s dad and Alex, who are standing by the large window looking out into the snow covered garden, do though. Michael only looks shocked for a second, before the only possible explanation for Kappy’s presence dawns on him. Alex looks exasperated.

“You brought back-up for introducing your boyfriend?” he asks, incredulous. Willy had expected a reaction like that, but since everyone else had gotten it right away, he can’t really help but chirp his brother.

Willy raises an eyebrow and looks down at their intertwined hands before returning his gaze to Alex. “That’s why you think he’s here?” he asks mockingly and leans slightly into Kappy’s space. He knows what they look like when he does this, had tested it out at home, just before they left, and it has the desired effect. Alex eyes widen.

“Oh, shit,” he says, then grimaces. 

“Language,” their mother chides from where she’s setting up the last of the food. “And, sit down. Dinner’s ready.”

“Sorry,” Alex mumbles and goes to sit down without looking at Willy and Kappy.

Michael walks up to them and pulls Willy into a hug, then he looks at Kappy and, with a smile, holds out his hand. “I know we’ve met already,” he starts, “but it’s nice to meet you again as my son’s boyfriend.” 

Kappy, who’d looked a bit rattled at Alex’ reaction seems to find his equilibrium again. He shakes Michael’s hand. “Thank you for having me, uhm, Mr Nylander.”

He laughs. “You called me Michael before, you can call me Michael now,” he says and Willy can feel Kappy relax slightly against his side. “Now, come on, dinner is ready,” Willy’s dad says and ushers them to the table and gestures at the two free seats surrounded by Willy’s sisters. Alex and their parents sit down just opposite them.

Camilla gestures for them to hand over their plates so she can serve them some of the salad and says, “It’s so nice to meet you, as Willy’s boyfriend, I mean. If we’d known it was you, we would have had you over a lot sooner.” She gives Willy a slightly reproachful look.

“Oh that’s my fault,” Kappy says, looking a bit sheepish. “I asked him not to tell anyone.” He seems to hesitate for a moment, before adding, “It’s just...not easy, you know?”

“Of course, honey,” Camilla says warmly. “We don’t blame you at all. We’re just happy to have you here now.” There’s clearly more she wants to ask, but she doesn’t, just keeps passing plates out until everyone has a bowl of colourful salad sitting in front of them.

Michelle apparently doesn’t have so many qualms about possibly intruding or overstepping. “So how long exactly have you two been together?” she asks, trying to sound nonchalant, even though Willy knows she must be dying from curiosity. “Willy’s always been a bit cagey about it, but you can tell us now, right?”

Willy takes a deep breath. He’s suddenly very glad they actually talked about this, because he can simply respond, “Since around April last year, when we were both back with the Marlies,” without having to think about it first. 

Alex makes a sound that’s somewhere between a sigh and groan and Willy looks at him again. Alex is pointedly looking down at his salad and Willy feels a heavy weight settle in his stomach. 

Kappy seems to sense his uneasiness, because he reaches back down to squeeze Willy’s hand, after he’d let it go to accept an offered bowl of salad. 

“Well,” Willy’s mom says and puts down the salad tongs, halting further questions into their relationship for now. “What are you waiting for?” She gestures at the food.

" _Smaklig måltid!_ " Willy’s youngest sister chimes, before realizing that Kappy doesn’t actually understand any Swedish. “I mean,” she starts sounding embarrassed, but Kappy just smiles at her.

“No worries, he says that all the time,” he says with a wink, while nudging Willy lightly. Willy’s sister lights up at that and smiles back at Kappy, before happily digging into her salad. Willy is reminded why he wasn’t worried about his younger sisters at all, they all adored Kappy the last time they met him. He hadn’t really thought that he’d have to worry about Alex either though.

“So, if you’ve only been together since last spring, how come you moved in together so fast,” Michelle picks back up, after they’ve all started eating. Thankfully they’ve also thought of that, so Willy just shrugs.

“I mean, we were friends for a while before we got together, so we probably would have moved in together anyway,” he says, and he’s not even really lying here.

The rest of dinner is relatively civil. Willy’s parents ask them some innocent questions, but it’s mostly about the season and their teammates, nothing either one of them struggles with. Honestly, Willy isn’t really sure why they’d been expected to be quizzed about their relationship. It doesn’t seem like anyone even doubts for a second that they’ve been together for months.

There’s one slightly precarious situation when Kappy is telling a story about how he spent his birthday during the summer. He’s just telling them about how nice it was to get to spend it with his family, after being busy with rookie camp the year before, when Camilla starts looking more and more confused.

“When did you say again your birthday was again?” she asks, brow creased.

“At the end of July,” Kappy responds. “Depending on the year, I sometimes have camp then, so being home for a change was really nice.” He smiles, but Camilla still looks concerned and Willy suddenly remember that he spent all of the summer hanging out Alex and some of his friends in Sweden. Certainly not with his boyfriend. Even though he’d clearly had the time. He bites his lip, unsure of what to say.

Kappy seems to get what’s going on though, because he says, “Oh, no, it’s...I mean,” he pauses and looks down at his food. “My parents don’t know about…it would have been weird, if…” he trails off and looks genuinely sad. Without even thinking about it, Willy reaches out and grabs his hand again to provide some comfort. Kappy gives him a grateful squeeze in return and smiles softly at Willy.

Camilla looks heartbroken. “Oh, honey,” she says, a little choked up. “You’re always welcome here, I hope you know that.” She looks like she wants to come over and give Kappy a hug. Kappy gives her a hesitant, grateful smile.

Willy shuffles in his seat uncomfortably. For a moment even he had forgotten that all of Kappy’s story was just made up, a lie to make their whole relationship seem more authentic, and now he feels bad that his mom seems so affected by this. He hadn’t thought Kappy was such a good actor.

The mood is dampened a bit, until Willy’s father says, “Well, hopefully you won’t be able to spend Willy’s birthday together either, because you’ll be to busy with the playoffs.”

Willy groans. “Dad, you’re gonna jinx it!” he complains, but his dad just waves him off.

“I’ve played in plenty of playoff games, it’ll be fine.” Willy isn’t exactly happy about potentially cursing his team’s whole season, but at least the mood is lighter again.

It’s only later, when they’re talking about his sister’s upcoming tennis tournament, that Willy realizes Alex hadn’t even joined into the hockey talk.

————— 

After dinner they settle down in the living room. Willy pulls Kappy down next to him on the couch and Kappy automatically puts an arm around him, knuckles of his hand brushing against Willy’s upper arm lightly. Camilla smiles at them.

Alex still isn’t looking at them and Willy’s had enough. He’d expected awkward questions, or scepticism, but he hadn’t expected silence.

“I’ll be back in minute, okay?” he whispers to Kappy and he knows that it’s not fair to leave Kappy with his family, but he really needs to do this. Kappy seems to agree, because he just nods at him and gamely asks Willy’s youngest sister what she’s currently doing at school.

Satisfied with that Willy gets up off the sofa and walks towards the door. When he passes Alex, he unceremoniously grabs his arm and drags him along. Alex only struggles a little and doesn’t even protest, so Willy hopes he’s going to get an explanation soon.

He pulls Alex into another room — a guest room, probably occupied by their two youngest siblings, if the clothes lying around are anything to go by — and shuts the door behind them. Before Alex can even say anything, Willy lets go off his arm and shoves him away. “What the fuck is your problem?” he hisses. “You were fine with it this summer! You promised me!”

“That was before I knew it was him!” Alex hisses back. “It’s different now.” Cold dread settles in Willy’s stomach. This is like all of his nightmares coming true.

“Why? Because you actually have to see us together now?” Willy asks, trying to sound cold and unaffected. He’s not sure he’s succeeding.

Alex looks confused. “What? No!” he says, “Why would you even think that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Willy starts, derisively, “Maybe because you won’t even fucking look at us?”

Alex looks stunned. “I don’t care that you’re dating a dude,” he says slowly, “I care that it’s your best friend.” Now it’s Willy’s turn to be confused. 

“What’s wrong with Kappy?” he asks, slightly defensive. Alex shrugs helplessly.

“It’s not really about Kappy it’s just…” he trails off and looks at the floor, unable to meet Willy’s eyes. “When you told us this summer, I kinda assumed it was just some dude you were hooking up with,” he mumbles.

Willy feels himself turn pink slightly, but tries to ignore it. “Why’s it different if I’m actually dating someone?” he asks, confused. Alex gives him a hard look.

“Because you should have told me!” he insists. Willy wants to protest, that he doesn’t owe anyone an explanation about his dating life, but Alex continues. “You were still living with us when you got together and I didn’t even notice anything. We spent the whole summer together and you never said anything.”

“I— Kappy didn’t—” Willy starts, because he’d been prepared for questions like that. Alex shakes his head, the words coming easy to him now, after he’s spent the whole evening being silent.

“He stayed over at my place when we played the Marlies. I mean, I fucking helped you pick an apartment when you told me you were moving in together and you still didn’t even bother to tell me that he’s your boyfriend.” Alex sounds betrayed now, and maybe a bit sad. He sighs. “I’m sorry, I know it’s not— I just…” he pauses and fidgets slightly. “I just don’t understand why you didn’t trust me.”

Willy feels cold suddenly, all his anger vanishing while he listens to Alex. Cold and guilty. He hadn’t even considered what the whole thing must look like to his brother. The last few months have already been strange for them, with the prospect of playing against each other next year looming on the horizon, after spending a year living together in Toronto.

For a moment, Willy wants to tell him everything. Suffering through the humiliation of his ridiculous idea being discovered would absolutely be worth getting rid of that look on Alex’ face. He open his mouth to say something, but then Alex sighs again.

“Sorry, I guess it’s my fault,” Alex says and Willy wants to protest, but then Alex continues, “I just feel really dumb that I didn’t see it.” He gives a self-deprecating little laugh. “I mean, I spent so much time around you guys and I can’t believe I didn't notice anything.”

Willy blinks. Then he blinks again. “I— what?” he stutters out, because it’s one thing for his mom, who only really sees him in the summer, to think his relationship with Kappy was a long time coming. It’s different when it’s Alex, who’s actually spent significant amounts of time with both of them.

Alex apparently misunderstands the expression in his face though, because he hastily reassures, “Oh no, it’s not that obvious or anything! I mean, it’s not like everyone can see it right away!” Like that actually makes it better. “It’s just, different for me because I know you,” he adds, somehow managing to make the whole thing even worse. Then, to top it all off. “It’s just really easy to tell that you’re really in love.” He smiles softly. “And I’m really happy for you, sorry that I didn’t say that before.”

Willy is speechless. It’s like all his thoughts have spontaneously left his head and his brain is just playing _you’re really in love_ on loop. “Thanks,” he finally manages to croak out. Alex just keeps smiling and the lightly punches him in the shoulder.

“Come on, we should get back. Can’t leave your poor boyfriend alone with our parents for too long, who knows what they’ll ask him.” And with that Alex turns around and walks back into the living room. Willy takes a deep breath and follows him, thoughts still refusing to settle down.

He must look a bit pale when he sits back down on his spot on the couch, because Kappy shoots him a concerned look, nudges him lightly, and asks, “Everything okay?” Willy just nods, suddenly really aware of every single place their bodies are touching. He knows they’re both pretending right now, trying to act like a couple on purpose, but is this isn’t really much different from how they usually sit when they’re in a crowded room.

Willy wonders when it had become so instinctive to lean into Kappy whenever they’re sitting next to each other, or for Kappy to automatically put his arm around Willy’s shoulder. No wonder they can pull off this couple thing.

Kappy probably notices that something’s wrong, but he doesn’t comment, most likely because the tension with Alex is gone now. Willy tries to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening with his family, since he doesn’t see them that often during the season.

It only sort of works.

Eventually Alex has to leave, because he has a game the next day and a curfew. Willy and Kappy also make their excuses, because while Willy has a couple of days off for the holidays, Kappy has a game the next day and an accompanying morning skate. Willy’s thoughts keep drifting back to what Alex had said, even while he’s hugging his sisters goodbye and wishing his brother good luck for his first game.

Camilla walks them to the front door and Willy can tell that she wants to say something, so he hesitates after putting on his shoes.

“It was really nice to have you over,” she says and smiles at both of them. Then she turns to Kappy. “We’d love it, if you’d come visit us in Sweden in the summer. If you have some time of course, I know how busy off-seasons can be.” Kappy looks a bit overwhelmed.

“I— thank you, yeah, uhm—” he stutters and Camilly smiles at him before pulling him into a hug.

“You’re always welcome, honey,” she says warmly. She turns to Willy, but doesn’t say anything more. 

Kappy seems to get that she wants to talk to Willy alone for a moment, because he says, “Oh, I’ll...” and gestures to the street where their car is parked. Willy expects him to just go with that, but before he turns around to leave he hesitates. Then he quickly steps closer and presses a soft kiss to Willy’s lips. “I’ll wait in the car.” And with that he’s gone

For the second time this evening Willy is completely speechless. _Did that just happen?_ He instinctively turns his head to look to the doorway Kappy just disappeared through, resisting the urge to reach up and touch his lips, to see if they feel different now, if anything’s changed. He snaps out of it to find his mom watching him with a fond expression.

“Oh honey, I’m so happy for you,” she says, smiling. “He’s such a nice boy and it’s so good to see you so happy. I was a bit worried when you didn’t want to tell us anything about your boyfriend before, but I guess it makes sense now.”

Nothing makes sense anymore to Willy. To be honest, he has no idea how he’s ever going to untangle this mess, but for now his mom looks happy and that’s really all he wanted to achieve for today. “Thanks, mom,” he says, smiling, and pulls her closer when she reaches up to hug him goodbye. “I’ll see you tomorrow at Alex’ game, yeah?”

Camilla nods and lets go of him. “Have a nice evening, honey,” she says and then Willy is out of the door and walking over to the car.

When he slides into the passenger seat Kappy looks at him, questioning. “Everything alright?” he asks and Willy nods.

“Yeah, just— that was a lot...Let’s just go home, yeah?”

Kappy nods and starts the car, turning up the music that had been quiet in the background. Willy is grateful that he doesn’t have to talk. 

His lips still tingle slightly.

————— 

They’re quiet when they get back home, but when Kappy closes the front door behind them he finally breaks the silence. “I thought that went well.” He sounds nervous.

“Yeah,” Willy agrees, distracted. He’s absentmindedly chewing on his bottom lip, but stops when he notices Kappy staring at him, looking uncertain.

“Was, uhm, was that okay?” Kappy asks hesitantly and touches his own mouth, just in case Willy doesn’t get what he’s talking about probably.

“Yeah, of course,” Willy hastily assures him. “I mean, I was just surprised. But, good thinking. Seemed really natural. It was a good idea.” He should probably stop talking now. He takes a deep breath. “I thought the whole night went really well, right? I mean, my family loved you.”

“I told you, I’m good with parents,” Kappy says smugly as he’s hanging up his coat.

“Yeah, whatever,” Willy says with a smile and walks into the kitchen to get something to drink. Kappy is settled in on one of the couches in their living room when he gets back, starting up the Playstation. Willy sets two glasses on the table and settles down next to him.

It’s quiet for a while, only interrupted by the sounds coming from Kappy setting up his game, until Willy breaks the silence. “Hey, thanks for tonight,” he says, looking at Kappy. 

Kappy just shrugs. ”No problem.” He presses a couple of buttons absentmindedly, before he pauses the game, puts down his controller and looks at Willy. “So, that was like a test run, right? To see how your parents would react to you bringing a guy home?”

That hadn’t actually been Willy’s intention, but he can see how it might seem like that from the outside, so he just shrugs, not really sure where Kappy is going with this.

Kappy takes a deep breath. “Look, you’re gonna need to be careful,” he says, fidgeting with the controller in his hands. Willy feels his brow crease in annoyance.

“I know, Kappy, I’m not stupid. I know this can’t get out, or I’d be…” he trails off, not quite sure what he’d be if anyone found out. Of course he’d thought about what would happen if he got outed before, but he tries not to dwell on that too much. 

But Kappy shakes his head. “No, that’s not what I meant.” He runs a hand through his hair, seemingly unsure of what he wants to say. “Look,” he finally continues. “I know you like the idea of properly dating someone, but that’s gonna be really difficult.” Willy’s chest is starting to feel tight, but he tries to suppress the growing feeling of unease. 

“What do you mean?” he asks hesitantly. Kappy sighs and looks down at his hands.

“I mean, you can’t just— you can’t really go out on dates or anything, you’re too recognizable. And where would you even meet people?” Willy shifts uncomfortably on the couch.

“I dunno,” he mumbles. “I haven’t really— I mean, I could just talk to someone at…Look, this isn’t really any of your business,” he finishes lamely, and he can feel his face heat up in embarrassment. 

“I’m just trying to help you,” Kappy says, but it doesn’t sound very warm to Willy. “I just need you to get that whatever people you meet aren’t gonna be looking for you to take them home to meet your family.”

Willy crosses his arms in front of his chest, trying to close himself off from the vaguely sick feeling in his stomach. The evening had been going so well and he doesn’t understand what Kappy’s problem is. “I— So I’ll just find someone to hook up with first, big deal.” He tries to say it nonchalantly, but his voice shakes slightly.

Kappy laughs, but it sounds mean and joyless. “You’re still freaking out about me kissing you, there’s no way you’re fine with casual sex.”

Willy wants to hide. His cheeks are burning and he feels sick. “You don’t— you have no idea, what—-” He breaks off and tries to calm himself down. “Why do you even care?” he asks instead, trying to sound as he possibly can.

“You’re my best friend,” Kappy says immediately and Willy snorts.

“Do you make all your friends feel like shit, or is it just me?” Willy snaps at him and Kappy flinches. 

“I’m not trying to—” Kappy starts, but Willy interrupts him.

“What’re you trying to do then? Because right now that’s all you’re doing.” Willy’s angry now, and it feels like a hot coal is sitting in his stomach, but at least he doesn’t feel so small anymore.

Kappy’s face makes a complicated expression that Willy can’t quite figure out, but he isn’t really inclined to try very hard right now. “I’m just trying to protect you,” he says, and it sounds sincere, but Willy isn’t so easily appeased.

“Why are you ruining this for me then?” he asks, not quite as cold as before, but still not particularly friendly. 

“I’m not— I’m sorry if I’m— I mean—,” Kappy breaks off and takes another deep breath. “Look, it’s just that in my experience, you’re gonna get hurt if you don’t make sure you know what you’re doing. And I don’t want that for you”

Willy blinks at him. Then he raises his eyebrows. “In your experience,” he repeats. “With relationships?”

Kappy hesitates a moment. Then he says, “My experience with guys.” 

Willy freezes. Kappy isn’t moving either, his shoulders are hunched over like he expects to be reprimanded and he’s holding on to the controller in his hands like a lifeline. “You’ve had relationships with guys,” Willy clarifies, trying to make his voice sound neutral. Kappy fidgets, not looking at him.

“I mean, calling them relationships is a bit much,” he says quietly, “but, I’ve hooked up with teammates before.” Willy is completely silent. His thoughts are frantically rushing through the past couple of weeks as he tries to process this new information. “Look, I’m sorry,” Kappy finally says and he sounds almost desperate and kind of scared. “I know I should have told you, I just—” he breaks off and looks at Willy, a bit lost.

“It’s fine,” Willy says and is surprised to find that he means it. He’s not mad at Kappy, not anymore. He’s maybe a bit disappointed, but he hadn’t really told Kappy either until he’d had a reason to. “I mean,” he amends, “it would have been nice to know when I was terrified of coming out to you.” Kappy looks slightly guilty at that. “But it’s your business who you tell.”

“I dunno, it never came up,” Kappy mumbles and Willy could probably point to at least ten moments over the last couple of weeks that would have been good opportunities for Kappy to share this tiny, insignificant fact with him, but he doesn’t mention that.

“Why are you telling me now?” he asks instead. Kappy shrugs and looks down at his controller again.

“I figured you should know that I’m just trying to warn you,” he mumbles. He looks tired all of sudden. “Look, can we talk about this tomorrow? I have a game and I should probably get to bed.”

Willy nods at that, his mind still running a thousand miles a minutes. “Yeah, fine,” he says, then adds, “good luck tomorrow,” as an afterthought. Kappy smiles at that.

“Thanks.” He tosses his controller to the couch and gives Willy a hesitant smile and a slight wave of his hand, and then he’s gone, leaving Willy to sit alone in their living room, with only the menu music of Call of Duty playing quietly in the background.

Willy isn’t sure how long he just sits there, but when he goes to bed hours later he still has no idea what to make of Kappy’s behavior.

————— 

They don’t manage to talk the next morning. Kappy is already gone, probably to morning skate, when Willy wakes up. He leaves to meet his family and go to Alex’s game before Kappy gets back. 

Just yesterday he’d thought how sad it was that Kappy had an afternoon game and couldn’t come with them, but now he’s glad that he has a good excuse why his boyfriend isn’t joining them.

He’d been going over it in head last night, lying in bed, unable to sleep, trying to figure out where everything had gone so wrong. He hadn’t really been able to come to a conclusion.

He expects they’ll talk in the evening, but Kappy goes out with the guys after the game and isn’t back yet when Willy goes to bed.

He leaves early the next morning, since he has a plane to Florida to catch. There’s a niggling unease in the back of his mind when he thinks about the fact that they still haven’t talked, but on his way over to the airport he gets a text, that reads _Sorry I was an asshole. Can we talk when you get back? Have a good flight!_ and he feels a bit better after that.

He just sends back _Okay_ , but he finds it much easier to look forward to the warm Florida sun now.

But just when he’s convinced that this one headache in his life will resolve itself soon and without much drama, another one appears. Zach is being weird. Not on the ice, of course, but he’s having some trouble looking at Willy in the locker room and he doesn’t join Willy and Sosh when they go to check out a seafood place close to the beach for dinner. 

When the day ends, Willy is honestly annoyed. He’s lying in bed, still dressed and not ready to sleep anytime soon, wondering yet again what he could have possibly done to make one of his best friends behave so strangely. He briefly considers asking Sosh, who’s sitting on his own bed, quietly watching some Russian show on his phone that Willy can’t understand, if he has any idea what Zach’s problem might be, but he decides against it. No need to involve him and make it awkward for all of them.

He’s just decided to go to bed earlier than usual, in the hope that tomorrow might be a better day, when there’s a light knock at their door. He glances over at Sosh, but he looks just as surprised as Willy feels, so he shrugs and goes to answer.

It’s Zach, shuffling his feet and looking a bit unsure, but actually looking at Willy for the first time today, so Willy counts it as a win. It gets even better, when Zach opens his mouth to ask, “Can I talk to you? Alone, I mean?” Willy nods immediately and grabs his key card, waving at Sosh before he closes the door behind him. 

He gestures for Zach to lead the way and Zach guides them all the way to a quiet part of the hotel terrace and gestures for him to sit down on one of the loungers, before sinking down on the one next to him. Willy isn’t really surprised at all the secrecy. If this was something that Zach could have told him in public, he would have, so he’s curious to finally find out what’s going on.

They sit in silence for a bit, breathing in the clear air, still warm even though it’s december, while Zach seems to gather his thoughts. “Look, I’m really sorry,” is what he finally says, giving Willy a look like a kicked puppy, “but I just thought, I mean, you should know that…” He breaks of and takes a deep breath. “You should know that I know,” he says with a weight that doesn’t really match the fact that Willy has no idea what he’s talking about.

“You know what?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

Zach sighs. “You know,” he starts, gesturing a bit wildly. “About you and Kappy.” Willy’s first thought is that Zach is talking about their current fight, or conflict, or whatever it is, but that’s not really possible. His confusion must show on his face, because Zach continues, “That he’s your boyfriend, or whatever.”

He runs a hand through his hair and give Willy another apologetic look. “I’m really sorry, but I saw your phone, and I should have said something weeks ago, but I just— I mean, I figured you didn’t want me to know, because you didn’t tell me—” His eyes widen. “Which is fine, of course! Not that you need to tell me, but I found out anyway, so I figured I should tell you and—” Willy decides to put a stop to the rambling and hold up a hand. Zach falls quiet almost immediately.

“I was gonna tell you anyway,” Willy says, with a calm he doesn’t quite feel. He had actually wanted to come out to Zach, that much is true, but it still feels strange that it didn’t happen on his own terms. In a way, it makes things easier. On the other hand he feels slightly sick just thinking what would have happened if Zach had reacted badly.

Zach seems to calm down at his admission. “Oh,” he says. “Really? I— I mean, thanks, that…” He seems unsure of how to finish, so he lets the sentence trail off. “I’m glad you trust me,” is what he finally says.

Willy gives him a hesitant smile. “Course I trust you, it’s just…” He shrugs. “It never came up, you know?” He knows it’s not completely true. There’d been multiple occasions in the past, when the others had been talking about their girlfriends or dating in general, where Willy could have said something. Zach seems to understand though, because he just nods.

“Yeah, I get it,” he says quietly. They sit in silence again for a moment. “Sorry, I was weird before,” Zach finally says, a bit sheepish. “I just felt really bad, you know?” Willy smiles at him. 

“I was wondering what was up with you. But I’m glad I don’t need to worry about it.” Zach smiles as well.

“We should, probably get back,” he muses after a while. “We have a game tomorrow.” It’s not really that late, they haven’t missed curfew yet, but Zach’s still right, so Willy lets Zach pull him up and off the lounger and they walk back inside.

When they get to Willy’s room, Zach grabs his arm. “Hey, I’m really happy for you. I’m glad you have someone in your life, you deserve it,” he says earnestly and smiles at Willy. Then he’s gone and Willy is left standing in front of his hotel room door, wondering why everyone is so convinced that Kappy makes him happy.

————— 

It’s only when Willy is back in the room that he realizes he just accidentally outed Kappy by confirming their relationship to Zach. He gives Sosh, who’s still sitting on his bed and engrossed in his show, a quick smile, before he grabs his phone and heads out on the balcony.

It’s only after the number is already dialed that he remembers that he and Kappy aren’t really talking right now. Before he has time to dwell on that though, Kappy picks up with a slightly breathless, “Willy? What’s wrong?” Willy bites his lip. He hadn’t even considered how weird it would be to call Kappy. They usually just text. 

“Nothing’s wrong,” Willy starts, and before he can continue, Kappy interrupts him.

“Oh, okay, I just— I thought we were gonna talk when you got back.” He sounds a bit contrite when he adds, “Sorry I’ve been avoiding you.”

Willy lets out a slow breath and leans against the banister of the balcony. “It’s okay,” he says slowly, “I just needed to tell you something.” He hears a rustling at the other end of the line, like Kappy’s settling in between the sheets on his bed. 

“Sure, what’s up?” Kappy says with quite obviously fake cheer. Willy isn’t quite sure where to start. The night air brushes against his bare arms and he enjoys it for a moment, while he collects his thoughts.

“Zach thinks we’re dating,” he finally says, deciding on the most straightforward choice. Kappy clears his throat, before he responds.

“I— Okay, that’s— He’s not being a dick about it, is he?” He sounds worried and Willy can’t help but smile a little at that.

“No, he’s very happy for us,” he says, with slight chuckle.

“That’s nice,” Kappy says. “So, what’s the problem?” Willy blinks.

“We’re not actually together,” he says slowly. Kappy just laughs.

“Yes, Willy, I know that. I just figured, it might be easier to come out to the others, if you can tell them you have a boyfriend. So, just tell them it’s me,” Kappy says, sounding nonchalant and unbothered. Willy’s pretty sure his mouth is currently hanging open in a rather unattractive fashion, so he closes it quickly.

“You, uh, you’d be okay with that?” he asks carefully. _You’d do that for me?_ Kappy hums at the other end of the line.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever I can do to help. I mean, it’s your team.”

_It’s gonna be your team too soon_ Willy wants to say, but doesn’t. They don’t really talk about that, and there’s no guarantee anyway. Instead he says, “Thanks, that really means a lot.” He runs one hand through his hair and looks out at the hotel garden beneath him, wishing he could be back in Toronto. It feels weird to talk to Kappy on the phone.

Kappy chuckles. “No problem.” Then his voice turns more serious. “Hey, about what I said the other day—” Willy doesn’t really want to hear it.

“Let's talk about that when I get back, yeah?” he interrupts, because he’s not really sure where Kappy is going with this. He still doesn’t really know how he feels about what Kappy had said.

There's silence on the other side for a moment, before Kappy says, “We’re okay though, right?” And Willy immediately nods, even though Kappy can’t see him.

“Yeah, of course,” he reassures right away, and maybe he’s just imagines it, but it sounds like Kappy breathes out in what might be relief.

“Alright, I— we’ll talk when you get back then. Have a good game, yeah?”

Willy smiles. “I’ll score a goal for you.” It feels as easy to say as it had been before Christmas and he feels a bit lighter just saying it. Kappy laughs.

“Alright then, have a good night.”

“Good night,” Willy replies softly, before he hangs up. He stays out on the balcony for a bit, staring down at his phone, until a knock against the window brings him out of his thoughts. He turns around to see Sosh standing there, looking concerned.

Willy opens the door. “Hey, what’s up?” he asks. “Why didn’t you just come out and join me?” Sosh shrugs.

“You were on the phone, and then you looked sad,” he says in explanation. “Everything okay?” He sounds concerned, in a way that warms Willy from the inside out.

“Yeah, I just—” he tries to decide how much he should tell Sosh. They’re good friends and they usually don’t shy away from emotional stuff either, having both commiserated about how strange living in Toronto can be together before. In the end he just says, “I kinda had a fight with Kappy before we left and now it’s weird.” 

Sosh nods sagely. “Fight with partner is never good,” he says and Willy’s heart stops for a second. Maybe Sosh is thinking of a different word. That had happened a couple of times already and maybe he’s just referring to that Kappy that way because he’s Willy’s roommate without knowing what he’s implying. For some reason Willy doesn’t think that’s the case. 

He should really correct Sosh, because Kappy isn’t actually his partner, but he hesitates. It’s a perfect opportunity and Kappy had said… “Yeah, it sucks,” Willy agrees, before shaking his head. “It’s okay though, we’ll talk when I get back.” Sosh nods at that.

“You coming in now? Or you want to mope some more?” he asks and it’s only then that Willy realizes he’s standing in the open door, halfway still on the balcony, halfway in their room. Sosh is smirking at him and Willy rolls his eyes at him and pushes past him into the room, closing the door behind him.

“I’m going to bed now,” he declares and starts stripping off his shirt, when Sosh grabs his arm. 

“Hey, is gonna be okay, yes?” he says with big, earnest eyes. “Whatever is, Kappy loves you.” So much for Sosh not understanding what he was saying. Willy’s head is spinning.

“Uh, sure,” he manages to stutter out and Sosh lets go of his arm and pats him on the back reassuringly, before he disappears into the bathroom, presumably to brush his teeth.

Willy is standing frozen in the middle of their room with his shirt pulled halfway over his head. He snaps out of it and finishes undressing for bed. He’s sitting on his bed, staring down at his unlit phone screen, when Sosh comes out of the bathroom. He goes through the rest of his night routine mechanically, before he turns off the light and crawls into bed.

He came out to two teammates today. Or, well, two teammates assumed he was dating Kappy and he hadn’t corrected them. And now they knew, and it was fine. He burrows into his blanket a bit deeper, enjoying the feeling of being enveloped like that. 

“Good night,” Sosh whispers from over in his own bed.

“Good night,” Willy responds and closes his eyes. It takes a while for him to fall asleep though. He can’t really get over the fact that both Zach and Sosh, who have been over at their place multiple times and know both him and Kappy really well, are so quick to believe that he and Kappy are a couple. Sosh even sounded so sure when he said that Kappy loves him. Like he had no doubt about it.

Willy sighs. They really need to talk of when he gets home.

————— 

They win both games in Florida, neither one in regulation, but Willy scores a goal in one game and gets an assist on the game winner in the other, so it’s a good road trip for him. Still, he feels a bit uneasy when he gets on the plane to fly back to Toronto. He mostly tries to sleep on the flight, opting out of playing cards with the others.

When Willy finally gets home, it’s the middle of the night. He drops his luggage in the foyer, not even turning on the light, deciding to sort it out the next morning. He’s exhausted. Something moves in the darkness and Willy nearly jumps in surprise, only relaxing when a sleepy voice calls out, “Willy?”

He flips on the switch next to their front door and light floods the room, revealing a slightly rumpled Kappy, who’s sitting up on the couch, rubbing his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. “What are you doing?” Willy asks.

Kappy yawns. “I was gonna wait for you.” He yawns again. “Guess I fell asleep, sorry,” he adds, with lots of blinking.

“Oh,” Willy says softly. He hadn’t really expected to see Kappy today, he’d thought he’d have more time to figure out what he even wanted to say to him. “Do you wanna talk now?” he asks, hesitant. Kappy blinks at him.

“Uh, no? I mean, I’m really tired and you just had a flight and stuff.” He yawns again. Willy is confused.

“Why did you wait up then?” he asks and Kappy shrugs and rubs a hand through his hair, like he’s embarrassed.

“Dunno, seemed like a good idea,” he says, not quite meeting Willy’s eyes. Willy smiles at him anyway. He picks up his bag and pushes it on a nearby shelf, suddenly feeling a bit more energetic, and walks over to Kappy.

“Thanks for waiting up then,” he says, then frowns. “You shouldn’t sleep on the couch though, you have a game tomorrow.” He reaches out a hand to pull Kappy up, who accepts it gratefully. Kappy sways slightly when he’s on his feet and leans into Willy a bit, who steadies him with a hand on his hip. “Everything okay?”

“Hm,” Kappy hums and smiles slightly. “Just glad you’re back,” he says and pulls Willy into a hug. Willy isn’t sure what’s happening, but he gently wraps his arms around Kappy as well for a moment. 

When he lets go again, he takes a closer look at Kappy’s face. His eyes are still drooping and he honestly looks like he’s about to fall back asleep, so Willy says, “Okay, let’s get you to bed,” and gently pushes Kappy ahead to his room. When they get inside, Kappy immediately makes a beeline for his bed, stripping off his clothes as he goes.

Willy turns around, his face feeling hot all of sudden, even though he doesn’t know why. He’d seen Kappy with far less clothes when they’d played on the same team and even at home Kappy isn’t exactly a paradigm of modesty. Willy has a theory that he might be allergic to shirts. 

Still, for some reason it feels different this time. Maybe because it’s the middle of the night, or because Kappy seems almost drunk with how tired he is. It doesn’t really matter, Willy feels like he’s not supposed to see this. He’s about to slip out of the room and close the door behind himself, when Kappy’s quiet voice says, “Willy?”

He turns back around and is greeted with the sight of Kappy sprawled out on top of his bed, lying on his back and wearing only his briefs. Willy’s face feels like it’s on fire and he’s not sure where to look. 

It only gets worse when Kappy smiles at him, all soft and sleepy. “Good night,” he mumbles, before crawling underneath his covers.

Willy feels a little breathless when he responds. “Good night.” He turns around and leaves Kappy’s room, carefully closing the door. When he gets inside his own room, he leans back against the closed door and just breathes for a moment.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. He thumps the back of his head against the door and sighs. _Fuck._

He’d always known that Kappy was attractive, but he’d tried so hard not to pay too much attention to it. Like with any of his teammates, Kappy is his friend before he’s anything else. It’s not worth risking their friendship, Kappy is just too important.

He closes his eyes in attempt to get a grip and calm down, but all he can see is Kappy, spread out on his bed, mostly naked and smiling up invitingly at Willy. It’s so easy to imagine, to alter that picture just a bit. To imagine what it would be like if Kappy hadn’t just been on the verge of falling asleep and not paying any attention to what he might look like. If he’d known exactly what he was doing to Willy.

Willy’s tried not to think about it, but he’s fairly sure that Kappy would enjoy being a tease, showing off and driving his partner crazy with it, and Willy would be so _happy_ to indulge him. He’d climb on top of Kappy, press their bodies together and kiss him. He’d start off slow and teasing, maybe bite at his lower lip a bit, but keep the kisses shallow, until Kappy wouldn’t be able to take it any more. He’d try to pull Willy down, pull him closer, so he could get a little more, but Willy would just press him down into the bed. He’d kiss Kappy properly then, would show him how much he wants it, maybe rock down his hips a bit to make Kappy feel it too. He’d sneak a hand down Kappy’s chest, until he could slip it into his briefs and...

He snaps his eyes open again angrily and shakes his head, trying to get rid of the images. He shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t think like that, not about Kappy, not now. He resists the urge to slam his closed fist against the door. It feels like he’s abusing Kappy’s trust, even just thinking about him that way.

Frustrated, Willy starts stripping off his clothes, glad that he’s not wearing his gameday suit anymore and can just drop them on the floor. He splashes some cold water on his face, hoping it will shock his uncooperative imagination into compliance.

When he’s finally lying in bed, his thoughts still keep drifting back to Kappy. He clenches his fists at his side, then, after a minute, opens one hand again and lays it on his stomach. The cold water hadn’t really helped much. He’s still turned on, just from thinking about his best friend. Or maybe he’s already crossed the line over into fantasizing. Guilt fills him again at the thought, a sick sensation that isn’t helped by the fact that it doesn’t make him any less horny. 

He’s so tempted to just push his hand a bit lower. Maybe it would help if he could get off thinking about something other than Kappy. He’d been just fine with imagining faceless guys up till now, why shouldn’t it work again? But he knows it won’t. It’s like his brain is fixated on Kappy now, and he can’t picture anyone else spread out underneath him. Or above him. The fantasy is variable in everything except the participants, it seems.

He should just sleep. He tries to take a couple of deep breaths and calm himself down. It sort of works, but only because his body really is exhausted. He’d already played a whole game today, one that went into overtime no less, and they’d only gotten back to Toronto in the middle of the night. He tries breathing regularly, like that one yoga instructor at camp had shown him. 

In the end, the exhaustion wins.

—————

The sound of his alarm rips him out of his slumber. It feels too early, his body still not quite recovered from the road trip, so he just lies there and breathes for a moment. He should get up, but he’s scared of how he’ll react to seeing Kappy again. Last night had been a bit of a revelation and it’s definitely too late now to pretend he’s not at least attracted to Kappy.

With a sigh, he drags himself out of bed and pulls on a shirt. They should really talk, before things get even weirder. 

When he stumbles into the kitchen, eyes still bleary and his mind working slowly, he finds Kappy standing at the stove, already awake and chipper, humming along to music coming from his phone. He looks up when he notices Willy and smiles.

“Good morning. Sorry I kinda fell asleep on you last night,” he says, sounding slightly sheepish. Willy’s mind immediately flips back to the images from last night, but he forcefully pushes them away and tries to smile at Kappy instead. It comes out a bit wobbly, but it’s better than nothing.

“Good morning,” he echoes. “Don’t worry about it, it was really late. Are you making omelets?” He peeks around Kappy to see what exactly he’s making and Kappy pushes him away, laughing.

“Yeah, and if you get in the way you’re not getting any.” He makes a shooing gesture with the spatula he’s holding and Willy raises his hands in surrender and retreats to the kitchen table. 

They’ve done this a hundred times. One of them makes breakfast, usually something protein-heavy and egg-based, the other hangs around and waiting for the end result. Usually it’s comfortable and easy, with lots of joking and the occasional food fight, but today Willy can’t sit still.

He can’t keep his eyes from wandering, taking in Kappy’s shoulders and watching his hands work deftly as he cuts up some mushrooms and pours them into the pan. His mind drifts to the way Kappy’s lips had quirked when he’d smiled at Willy and he wonders what they’d feel like against his own. Then his eyes shift a bit lower to check out Kappy’s ass, because, well, he’s a hockey player after all and it’s a very nice view.

He’s brought out of his reverie by Kappy placing a steaming omelet in front of him. “Thanks,” he says quickly and Kappy shrugs.

“I’ve kind of been a dick the past couple days, I just wanted to make sure we’re okay,” he smiles again and Willy gets distracted and has to hurriedly look down at his breakfast. “We’re okay, right?” Kappy says, sounding unsure now. Willy nods jerkily.

“Yeah, of course. When do you need to leave for your game?” he asks in a rush and Kappy shoots him a sceptical look, like he knows Willy is deflecting, but isn’t willing to call him out on it right now.

“Got morning skate in an hour and the game at seven. You?” he says, sitting down on the opposite side of the table with his own omelet.

“Practice in the afternoon,” Willy responds and starts picking at his food, just for something to do. He can feel Kappy looking at him, but eventually he starts in on his own breakfast as well.

They’re quiet while they’re eating and Willy isn’t sure if that’s normal or not. It suddenly feels really difficult to tell what’s normal for them and what isn’t and Willy hates it. 

He finishes up his omelet and mumbles a quick, “Thanks, this was really good.” Kappy shrugs.

“No problem. Anytime.” It sounds automatic, not like he really means it and Willy just doesn’t know where they even stand anymore. He gets up and grabs his empty plate. In the kitchen he decides to wash it by hand, instead of putting it in the dishwasher. He’s stalling and he knows it. When he’s done he sees the dirty pan that Kappy had used to make their breakfast still standing on the stove and decides to wash that as well.

He startles when Kappy walks up behind him, to slip his empty plate in the dishwasher, but moves out of the way reflexively. He should say something, anything really. “I’m gonna— I gotta go,” he stutters out and flees out of the kitchen.

He can hear Kappy quietly saying his name, but he doesn’t turn around, just heads straight to his room to hide. Through the closed door, he can hear Kappy rummaging around for while, collecting his gear and putting on his shoes, until he finally hears the front door close and only silence after that. 

He drops back down on his bed, suddenly feeling exhausted. _Fuck._

————— 

Despite Willy’s bad mood in the beginning, the afternoon practice is fun. Everyone’s looking forward to the Centennial Classic on New Years and the family skate tomorrow. He’s standing on the ice with Auston and Zach, waiting for their turn in the line rush, Auston excitedly telling them about his mom and sisters flying in for the event.

“Is your family coming too?” he asks, turning to Willy, who has to shake his head. 

“Alex has a game in Montreal, so they can’t make it.” He shrugs. “It’s alright, I saw them on Christmas, so that was nice.” Auston nods.

“Got anyone else you wanna bring to family skate?” he asks, and it’s such a leading question that Willy can’t help but shot Zach an accusatory look. Zach just raises his hands in a defensive gesture. Willy looks at Auston skeptically then.

“No, I—” he starts, but then Babcock blows the whistle and it’s their turn to join the drill. Willy’s mind is completely focused on hockey and his linemates while they work together, but when they’re done and official practice disperses into everyone working on their own game, it flits back to their conversation.

Auston stops next to where Willy’s leaning against the boards, both taking a quick break, and Willy takes chance.

“What if I was?” he asks and Auston looks at him, confused. “Bringing someone to the skate, I mean,” he clarifies. Auston shrugs.

“Good for you, I mean, lots of guys are bringing their girlfriends and stuff,” he responds. Willy takes a deep breath.

“What if it wasn’t a girlfriend?” he asks, and, honestly, the middle of a busy ice rink is a horrible place to come out to his linemate, so he has no idea why he says it. Well, if things turn sour at least he can skate away. 

Auston is giving him a calculating look. “It’ll be fun if you bring Kappy,” he finally says, and Willy nearly trips over his own skates in his haste to turn around and look at Auston properly.

Auston isn’t looking at him, so Willy doesn’t really have a way to know what he’s thinking, if he’s actually implying what he thinks he’s implying. Only one way to find out. “Why do you think I’d bring Kappy?” he asks, taking care to keep his voice neutral. Auston shrugs again.

“Dunno, I guess,” Auston says, still not looking at Willy directly. It’s not the _Because he’s your friend_ or _Because he’s your roommate_ that Willy had expected, but it’s not _Because you’re obviously dating_ either.

He steels himself, straightening up a bit, and asks, “Do you think Kappy is my boyfriend?” Auston glances at him out of the corner of his eye. He seems to hesitate for a moment.

“I mean, is he?” he asks, finally meeting Willy’s eyes. Willy just hums noncommittally, apparently prompting Auston to keep going. “Because if he is that’s cool. I mean, I’m sure no one would have a problem with it,” he says hastily, sounding like he’d rehearsed that little speech before. “But you don’t have to tell me, obviously,” he finishes lamely and looks away again.

Willy is getting a bit tired of people obviously thinking he and Kappy are in love. For once he feels like he has the upper hand though. “How’d you find out?” he asks Auston with a calculating look and Auston seems to relax at that. He even starts smiling slightly.

“When I first met you at camp you were always together,” he says, a little ruefully. “I thought you were just friends, but then I noticed how he looks at you.” 

“How does he look at me?” Willy asks, voice shaking slightly. He knows this isn’t fair, but he just...He has to know.

“I don’t really know how to describe it,” Auston says, leaning back against the boards as well. “I mean, not without sounding like a total sap, anyway,” he adds with a smirk and Willy laughs. He nearly chokes on it when Auston punches him in the shoulder lightly and says, “You’re a bit more subtle, but I figure you out, too.”

Willy coughs to hide his surprise. “Yeah?” he says shakily. “What do I do?” Auston sighs, looking out at their teammates, who’ve collected into different groups to work on passing, or shooting, with each other. 

“You were just so sad when he didn’t get called up,” he starts, which is fair enough, because Willy had been looking forward to playing with Kappy again and making the Leafs roster on his own had stung a bit. “But I didn’t really get it until you kinda...hit a slump,” he says hesitantly, like even just mentioning Willys inconsistent performance will make it come back.

“Kappy wasn’t even there for that,” Willy says, just so he doesn’t have to think about getting his ice-time cut anymore. Auston nods in agreement.

“Yeah, but the only time you looked happy was when you were talking to him. It’s either him or your family, and even your family didn’t help sometimes,” Auston says, gently. And he’s right. Willy knows he’s right, because he remembers coming home to Kappy as the only thing he’d looked forward to for a while. He just hadn’t thought…

“Hey, we should get back to work. I could use some more shooting drills,” he says quickly. Auston raises an eyebrow at him, obviously knowing full well that he’s deflecting. He lets Willy get away with it though, because he’s a good friend. Also because Willy was using more hockey as a distraction and that generally tends to work on Auston.

————— 

He can’t stop thinking about their conversation for the rest of practice, and even during dinner with his teammates it won’t leave his mind. 

Zach’s reason for thinking he and Kappy were dating had been something on Willy’s phone. It had sounded strange at first, but Willy isn’t overly surprised there’d been some confusion with some of the things Kappy’d sent him during their fake-dating preparation phase. He can write that one off as a simple misunderstanding.

Sosh’s assumption had shocked him, but Willy is still not completely convinced that Sosh hadn’t just meant that Kappy loves him in the platonic way. Even if he had meant it in a romantic sense, Sosh mostly spends time with Willy, not Kappy, so he can’t really know anything about Kappy’s feelings. 

Willy sighs and pokes at his steak and Zach sends him a concerned glance, but doesn’t say anything. It’s probably time to admit that his own feelings for Kappy aren’t quite platonic. Not platonic at all, actually. So he wouldn’t be surprised if Sosh had picked up on that. He’s quite perceptive.

The thing that really throws him off, Willy muses as he’s driving home, is Auston’s observation. There hadn’t been any potentially misleading pictures and he’d still been spot on about Willy. It’s not that outlandish to think that he might be right about Kappy as well, but Willy isn’t really sure what that would mean for their friendship.

The flat is dark when he gets there, Kappy must have left for his game hours ago. Willy checks his watch. He still has enough time before the game starts. He settles down with at least a somewhat healthy snack and some tea in front of his laptop. For the first time since practice he feels fully settled, his mind not wandering much while he watches hockey.

The Marlies lose. It’s not a terrible defeat, but he still knows Kappy won’t be happy when he gets home, even though he hadn’t had a bad game. Willy bites his lip, then closes his laptop, thoughts drifting back to his conversation with Auston. 

He’s pretty sure by now that he’s feeling...something towards Kappy. But he doesn’t know what exactly it is and, even more importantly, he still has no idea how Kappy might feel about him. He sighs and leans back into the couch cushions, closing his eyes.

He still hasn’t come to a conclusion when he hears the front door open. “I’m home,” Kappy’s voice calls out softly and Willy sits up on the couch so he can look at him. Kappy looks exhausted, but that’s to be expected. He also looks unsure, which makes some part deep inside of Willy clench painfully. Kappy’s not supposed to look like he doesn’t belong when he’s in their apartment.

“Welcome back,” he says, getting up off the sofa. “Was a good game, even if you didn’t win.” Kappy looks up from where he’d been busy hanging up his jacket.

“You watched?” he asks, like he’s surprised.

Willy nods. “Always.” The expression that spreads across Kappy’s face is subtle but pleased. Then Kappy looks directly at him and somehow his whole face softens. There’s none of the tension that he walked in with now, and he looks comfortable in his own skin and happy again. And, oh, maybe that’s what Auston had been talking about. Without any further thought, Willy blurts out, “Are you in love with me?”

The reaction is instantaneous. Kappy’s eyes widen and his whole face falls. He physically pulls away from Willy, moving back towards the door in a way that seems unconscious. “W— What?” he stutters out. “I— why do you— who—” Willy’s never heard him sound like that, like he’s terrified and failing to hide it. Willy feels his heart break a little.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he says soothingly, trying to say anything that might fix it. “I didn’t mean anything by it, please don’t…” He’s not sure how he wants to end that sentence. “We can just forget I said anything. Hey, you’re probably hungry. I think we have some leftovers from yesterday, I’ll go heat that up for you.” He turns around quickly, giving Kappy his space.

He shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t have— “Who told you?” Kappy says quietly, and Willy stops in his tracks. “Or was it something I did?” Kappy sounds pained, like each word he’s saying is causing him some anguish. “Is that why you’ve been acting so weird? Look, it doesn’t have to change anything.” He sounds almost like he’s pleading now and Willy doesn’t know how to make him stop.

He turns to look at Kappy, who’s still standing backed up against the front door, holding his arms in front of him protectively. “Auston said you have this way of looking at me sometimes,” Willy starts and color rises to Kappy’s cheeks almost instantly. Willy takes a second to reconsider his words, before he hastily adds. “No, not like— just like I…make you really happy,” he finishes, looking up at Kappy shyly. 

Kappy’s still red, but he doesn’t look quite as mortified anymore. “I mean, you’re my best friend,” he says shakily. For a moment Willy thinks Kappy’s going to deny everything, but then he says, “but that's not all you are to me. Not for a while now.” It’s probably the most honest and vulnerable thing anyone’s ever said to Willy and he’s left speechless.

“So, you’re really in love with me then?” he asks, when he finally regains control of his vocal chords. Kappy closes his eyes and nods once, a quick and harsh movement that looks like it takes all his courage. “Oh,” Willy says softly. “That’s good.” 

Kappy’s eyes fly open to stare at him. “What are you— What do you mean?” he asks, and if Willy isn’t mistaken, his voice wavers a bit, but he’s slowly dropping his arms from their defensive position. Willy shrugs and smiles at him. 

“I guess, I’ve been realizing some things lately,” he starts, then hesitates. “I’m not sure— I don’t know if I’m in love with you. I mean, I definitely like you as more than a friend,” he adds hastily, when he sees Kappy’s face fall slightly. “This is just all really new for me. Up until a month ago I didn’t think…” He trails off, but Kappy seems to get where he’s going with this, because he smiles encouragingly.

“That’s fine, you don’t have to know anything for sure,” he says, and finally steps away from the door. “Anything works for me. What are you— I mean, what do you want? We can take it slow, I don’t mind.” He sounds so earnest that Willy has to suppress another smile. He pretends to ponder the question. If Kappy is letting him decide, he might as well make the most of it.

He drops his shoulders slightly, then looks up at Kappy through his eyelashes. “Why do you keep thinking I wanna take it slow?” he asks, voice lower than usual. He starts walking towards Kappy, who’s now staring at him with his mouth hanging open a little. “I’ve known you for over a year, how much slower could we possibly take it?” He steps into Kappy’s space and doesn’t miss the way Kappy’s eyes flicker down to his mouth. He bites his lower lip lightly just to get a reaction and can almost feel Kappy suck in a breath.

“You remember when we left my parents’ house and you kissed me?” he asks. They’re standing so close now, Willy can feel the heat radiating off Kappy’s body, but they’re not touching, not yet. Kappy nods shakily. His hands are hovering in the air awkwardly, like he wants to touch Willy, but isn’t sure he’s allowed to. “You know, you didn’t even ask me beforehand. That was really rude.” He moves even closer to Kappy so that their faces are only inches apart. “You should ask this time,” he murmurs.

Kappy shivers. “Can— can I kiss you?” he finally asks, sounding a bit breathless. There’s something really exhilarating about seeing the effect he has on Kappy. Willy knows that some people get a bit flustered around him sometimes, but it’s different when it’s someone who actually knows him, someone he wants as well. He smiles, looking up through his eyelashes again.

“Of course you can,” he says softly and then Kappy’s kissing him. Kappy’s lips are just as plush as they look, and even just the first careful press of his lips to Willy's already feels amazing. Willy can’t help but smile into the kiss, letting his eyes close as his whole body tingles. He feels Kappy’s hands settle on his hips and reflexively brings his own up to wrap around his shoulders. Willy feels light, like he could float away if Kappy let go of him.

Then Kappy buries a hand in Willy’s hair, changes the angle slightly and starts kissing Willy _properly_. Willy’s noise of surprise gets swallowed when Kappy licks into his mouth and he feels his knees go weak, clutching at Kappy’s shoulders for something to hold on to. Willy had kissed people before — not that many people, but he has some experience — but none of that comes even close to the way Kappy is kissing him now.

He must make a noise — probably a whimper, even though Willy would be loath to admit it — and Kappy breaks the kiss and backs off a bit. They’re still breathing in the same air, faces close together, and both gasping. Willy can’t tear his eyes away from how red Kappy’s lips look. 

“Please, I— can you—” He’s not even sure what he’s trying to ask, but Kappy seems to understand him anyway, because he groans and pushes Willy back. He stumbles a little, not expecting it, but catches himself against the wall behind him. Before he has time to even wonder what’s going on Kappy is on him again, pressing him into the wall and kissing him fiercely. 

Every place where their bodies are touching feels like it’s on fire and Willy moans. It’s all too much and not enough at the same time. He grabs Kappy’s ass so he can slot their hips together and grind up against him, trying to get more, making both of them moan into the kiss.

Kappy breaks away from him. “Fuck, you’re so—” he gasps out and buries his head in Willy’s neck to suck at the tender skin there. Willy throws his head back and groans, trying to pull Kappy even closer and grind into him again. His cock is hard in his sweats and against his thigh he can feel that Kappy is in a similar state. 

The friction feels so good and Kappy bites him lightly, just a scrape of his teeth against Willy’s skin, but it feels electrifying either way and makes him moan again. He wants to reach down a hand and touch Kappy, make him feel as good as he’s currently making Willy feel, but Kappy suddenly pulls away. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—,” he pants out, shaking his head as if to clear it. It doesn’t work, because when he looks at Willy again, his pupils are still blown wide and huge. Willy’s sure he doesn’t look any different. Kappy’s breathing hard when he says, “I’m not being fair, you haven’t— I mean, you don’t even know what you want and I keep—” he doesn’t finish the sentence, but Willy understands anyway. Even if Kappy is being really dumb.

“I want you,” he says simply. He’d thought that much had been obvious. Judging by Kappy’s reaction it hadn’t, because he gasps in surprise, a tiny little ‘Oh’ sound and his eyes manage to get even darker before they focus on Willy’s lips again. Willy pulls him back down again. Kappy isn’t actually much taller than him, but the way he’s slumped against the wall makes for a nice height difference. 

Before he can do more than lay a soft kiss against Kappy’s jaw though, Kappy is pulling away again. “At least, let’s go to the couch or something,” he says with a grin that Willy had been missing the whole evening. “I just had a game and all this standing around is tiring me out.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s all the standing around,” Willy responds as drily as he can, while suppressing his answering smirk. He grabs Kappy’s hand and pulls him over to the couch. Instead of sitting down though he raises an eyebrow at Kappy. “You were all for me doing what I want, right?” he asks. Kappy gapes at him, but nods after a moment. Willy smiles. “Great, take your shirt off then.”

Kappy’s never been particularly shy about his body and that apparently isn’t any different now, because he complies immediately, stripping off his shirt and dropping it on the floor. At a tilt of Willy’s head he sits down on the couch obligingly, looking up at Willy with a curious expression. “Anything else?” he asks, teasing slightly and Willy brings his eyes back to his face.

“I figured since I haven’t done any of this, I could just try a couple of things and see, yeah?” Willy says and doesn’t miss the way Kappy’s abs twitch as he sucks in a quick breath. 

“Yeah, sounds good,” Kappy says, his voice sounding gravelly and low. He’s sitting completely still, waiting for Willy’s next move. Willy takes him in, eyes wandering over Kappy’s chest, which he’s seen a million times already, but had never allowed himself to really look at, down to Kappy’s stomach and the light trail of hair that leads from his navel down and disappears into his sweats. He focuses on the obvious bulge between Kappy’s legs, more prominent now that Kappy’s sitting with his legs spread slightly. Willy swallows once, then climbs into Kappy’s lap, knees braced next to Kappy’s thighs and hands coming to rest on his shoulders. 

Kappy’s staring up at him with a look at that Willy can’t quite place. His hands twitch where they’re lying uselessly on the couch and Willy smiles. “You’re allowed to touch me too, you know,” Willy says teasingly, rubbing at Kappy's shoulders. Most of the urgency of kissing Kappy in the foyer has disappeared now. Willy’s still feeling too hot and just as turned on, but he has Kappy underneath him now and he can do whatever he wants so he plans on taking his time.

Kappy seems to feel similarly, because when he does move, it’s not hectic, like he’d been in the foyer. Instead he reaches up one hand slowly and strokes along Willy’s jawline lightly. His other hand sneaks under Willy’s t-shirt, coming to rest on the warm skin of his side. The way Kappy is looking at him now is almost reverent. “Can you—” Kappy clears his throat. “Can you take off your shirt, too?” he asks and Willy smiles down at him.

He tries to strip it off in one smooth motion, but gets tangled up with the neck of the shirt and nearly falls off Kappy’s lap. It’s only the steadying hands on his hips that stop this from ending with a trip to the emergency room. Willy blushes, but the way Kappy laughs at him is full of warmth, so it’s not really a big deal. 

Still, he can’t have Kappy making fun of him, so he rocks his hips down and forward once, in a sharp motion that presses his ass directly against Kappy’s hard cock. Kappy’s laugh turns into a drawn out moan instead and his hands on Willy’s hips tighten in response. Willy does it again, fascinated by the way Kappy’s eyes clench shut and his muscles twitch like he’s trying to stop himself from pushing up against Willy. Also because it feels really good.

He’s not letting himself get distracted though, because Kappy’s naked chest is spread out right in front of him and it would be a shame to ignore that. He leans down and places a light kiss against Kappy’s sternum before licking at the skin a bit to the right. Kappy’s skin tastes clean and indistinct, but he likes it anyway. He moves down a bit and starts sucking on Kappy’s nipple lightly.

Kappy makes a cut-off noise and visibly tries not to twitch again. His hands are stroking up and down Willy’s naked sides now, but he’s not sure if Kappy’s even aware he’s doing it. His chest is heaving under Willy’s mouth, and he’s shivering slightly. Willy decides to go on with his exploration and moves over to the other side of Kappy’s chest. 

He puts his hands on Kappy’s stomach, stroking over the soft skin and hard muscle underneath admiringly. Feeling his abs contract when he bites down lightly on Kappy’s other nipple is gratifying, as is the low moaning sound Kappy makes. Willy sits back up to take him in properly.

Kappy’s biting his lip, probably trying not to make too much noise and his face is flushed, his hair disheveled. When Willy makes eye contact he reaches up again to rest his hand against Willy’s jaw and strokes his thumb from Willy’s jawline to his mouth, tracing Willy’s lips that must look a bit swollen. Willy nips at the finger lightly and Kappy closes his eyes and shudders.

“Fuck,” he breathes out, sounding enthralled. Willy can't quite believe that he could have this effect on another person, let alone Kappy, and he hadn’t even done much yet. He rolls his hips down again experimentally and moans at the sweet friction against his cock. 

Kappy’s biting his lip so hard Willy can see faint imprints of his teeth and he can’t have that. “No, don’t— I wanna hear you,” he pants out. “Need to know if you like it.” Kappy gives a throaty laugh at that.

“Trust me, I like it,” he says, low and gravelly again. “Fuck, you have no idea—” he breaks off and closes his eyes again like he’s in pain.

“No idea what?” Willy asks, because he’s not insecure about this, he’s not, but it he likes it when Kappy talks. Kappy gives him considerate look, then seems to decide on something, because he stops stroking Willy’s sides and settles a hand on his ass instead, pulling him closer, so Willy has to drop his whole weight down. 

“No idea long I’ve wanted this,” he says, eyes boring into Willy’s. “I mean, god, do you even know what you do to me?” He rocks his hips up, so Willy can actually feel what he does to Kappy, right up against his ass. Kappy keeps up the motion, moving his hips in a slow rhythm that sparks all of Willy’s nerves.

He moans and Kappy seems to take that as a sign to keep going. “Do you know how many times I’ve thought about this? Especially after you told me you’re into guys.” He leans up so he can speak directly to him, still grinding up against Willy’s ass and Willy has to close his eyes at the sensation of Kappy’s breath ghosting over his ear. “And, when you told you hadn’t done this before— Fuck, I wanna show you everything.” 

Willy whines at that, a high and desperate sound. “Then, come on, fucking touch me already,” he gasps out and Kappy doesn’t waste any more time. He pushes Willy down on the couch next to him and crawls between his spread legs, looking down at him hungrily. 

He hesitates at the band of Willy’s sweats. “Can I—” he starts and Willy just nods fervently, and lifts up his hips, so Kappy has easier access, not wanting to wait another second. He’s so close already from all the grinding and if he comes before he gets to feel Kappy’s hand on his cock he might die. 

Kappy’s careful when he pulls Willy’s sweats and briefs over his hips and down his thighs, almost tender. His hand of Willy’s cock doesn’t feel careful though and Willy groans loudly. “Oh, fuck.” It’s so different from his own hand, even if Kappy has the same hockey calluses that catch slightly at the skin when he strokes downward. “Please, I—” He can’t even finish a sentence, mostly incoherent noises leaving his mouth, but Kappy tightens his grip anyway and twists his wrist at the tip in the way that Willy likes. 

Willy comes with a shout, come striping his stomach and Kappy’s hand as he works him through his orgasm. He's faintly aware that Kappy’s talking, murmuring in a low voice, but he has no idea what he’s saying, sensation drowning out everything else.

When his brain decides to start working again, Kappy’s hand isn’t on his cock anymore. Instead Kappy is kneeling between his legs, one hand shoved down his own sweats and getting himself of in quick jerky movements. He doesn’t have his eyes closed, like Willy would have expected, but is staring intently at Willy, letting his eyes roam over Willy’s softening cock, up over his messy chest and to his face. 

“Hey, no,” Willy slurs slightly and Kappy freezes instantly. “‘S not fair. Wanna see you too,” he manages, pushing himself up to his elbows and smiling dopily at Kappy. Relief flickers over Kappy’s face and he obligingly pulls his hand out of his pants so he can shove them down his hips as well. He’s not wearing anything underneath, and so Willy has an excellent view when Kappy wraps his hand around his cock again.

It’s the same hand he’d used to jerk off Willy, traces of Willy’s come still clinging to his fingers and the sight alone makes Willy’s cock twitch against his thigh. He should probably do more, replace Kappy’s hand with his own and return the favor, but his whole body feels heavy in the best way. Kappy doesn’t seem to mind anyway, he seems to be getting there just looking at Willy, if the hitching in his breath is any indication. 

Willy stretches his legs out a bit more, getting more comfortable and sees Kappy’s gaze catch on the exposed part of his legs. He smiles. “You know,” he starts, “you should get up here, then you can come on my thighs,” he suggests innocently and Kappy moans in response and moves closer.

Kappy is leaning over him now, and Willy musters up the energy to reach up and pull him down so they can kiss again. It doesn’t take long before Kappy loses all coordination, groans into Willy’s mouth and goes rigid, his come hitting the upper part of Willy’s legs. Kappy’s panting, and Willy decides to let him catch his breath and presses gentle kisses along Kappy’s jaw. 

Kappy seems to be coming down eventually, because he uneventfully lets all his weight drop down on Willy to lie there motionlessly. Willy, who’s starting to regain some of his energy, pokes him in the side. “You still alive?” he asks, jokingly, and Kappy groans.

“No. You killed me,” he mumbles into the crook of Willy’s neck where his face is buried. Willy grins even though Kappy can’t see it. 

“Worth it,” he says and Kappy makes noise that sounds vaguely like agreement so Willy decides to bask in the afterglow for a bit, while Kappy gets his faculties back online. He gently cards a hand through Kappy’s hair, feeling the strands under his fingers and enjoying the feeling of closeness. 

Eventually Kappy starts moving again and pushes himself up on his hands to look down at Willy. “Everything okay?” he asks, brow creased slightly in worry. Willy smiles up at him.

“Perfect,” he decides. “We should do this more often.” Kappy’s expression softens, but there’s still some tension in his shoulders. 

“Like, just the sex, or…” he trails off slightly and Willy rolls his eyes. 

“No, you idiot. You told me you’re in love with me. I’m not gonna use you to experiment, I’m not a dick.” Kappy seems to relax fully at that. 

“Glad to hear it,” he says, smiling down at Willy again. “So what, I’m your boyfriend now?” He says it lightly, but there’s a harder edge to it. 

“If you want to be, yeah,” Willy says and strokes a hand down Kappy’s face. “I want you to be.” He pauses, then continues. “Because I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you too.” Kappy groans and buries his face against Willy’s chest, but Willy’s pretty sure he’s smiling.

“Love confessions after sex don’t count, everyone knows that,” Kappy exclaims against Willy’s skin and Willy laughs, free and happy.

“Fine, I’ll do it properly later. Now we should get off this couch, because I think we’re sticking together and it’s starting to feel pretty gross.” Kappy snorts, but gets off of Willy anyway. He holds out a hand and Willy lets himself be pulled up. He pulls up his sweats and underwear, which are still tangled around his legs. Kappy doesn’t pull his clothes back on, because of course he doesn’t. 

At Willy’s judgemental look he just shrugs. “We’re gonna need to shower anyway and there’s no one here but us.” Willy concedes the point and lets himself be pulled to the shower.

————— 

In the end, Willy doesn’t end up taking Kappy to the family skate. There are just too many people there. And media. And since they’re currently “Acting like a couple of newlyweds,” as Zach calls it affectionately, Willy supposes it’d be really difficult to get through five minutes on the ice together before someone figures them out.

It doesn’t really matter though. Willy has a real boyfriend now and some of his teammates even know. Eventually he’ll tell the rest as well, or maybe he’ll just wait until they figure it out by themselves. That seems to be working quite well for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> The events of this fic are inspired by [This terrible picture](https://www.instagram.com/p/BOae4MxAcr8/?taken-by=williamnylander). I mean, how was I supposed to resist? Real life is worse than fiction in this case, because they posted this picture on Christmas Eve...
> 
> All referenced games in this fic did actually happen the way I describe them, but I made some slight changes in regards to location for Alex' first World Juniors game (which was in Montreal, not Toronto) and Kappy's game on December 30th (it was an away game, but I needed him to be home).
> 
> Also, Kasperi doesn't really wears shirt. Ever. It's a thing.
> 
> And if you wanna talk about fic with me, I have [a fic tumblr](https://vidrianawrites.tumblr.com/) now! And if you wanna talk about the Leafs, pens, or miscellaneous other soft hockey boys, you can find me [Here](https://vidrianah.tumblr.com/)!


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